Computational Plasma Physics: With Applications To Fusion And Astrophysics (Frontiers in Physics)

✍ Scribed by Toshi Tajima

• Publisher: CRC Press
• Year: 2004
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 528
• Series: Frontiers in Physics
• Edition: 1
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

The physics of plasmas is an extremely rich and complex subject as the variety of topics addressed in this book demonstrates. This richness and complexity demands new and powerful techniques for investigating plasma physics. An outgrowth from his graduate course teaching, now with corrections, Tajima's text provides not only a lucid introduction to computational plasma physics, but also offers the reader many examples of the way numerical modeling, properly handled, can provide valuable physical understanding of the nonlinear aspects so often encountered in both laboratory and astrophysical plasmas. Included here are computational methods for modern nonlinear physics as applied to hydrodynamic turbulence, solitons, fast reconnection of magnetic fields, anomalous transports, dynamics of the sun, and more. The text contains examples of problems now solved using computational techniques including those concerning finite-size particles, spectral techniques, implicit differencing, gyrokinetic approaches, and particle simulation.

✦ Table of Contents

Cover
Half Title
Title Page
Copyright Page
EDITOR'S FOREWORD
FOREWORD
PREFACE
Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Introduction
1.1 Computer and Computer Simulation
1.2 Dynamical Systems of Many Degrees of Freedom
1.3 Particle Simulation and Finite-Size Particles
1.4 Limitations on Simulation—Future Directions
1.5 Hierarchical Nature and Simulation Methods
Chapter 2: Finite Size Particle Method
2.1 Gridless Theory of a Finite-Size Particle System
2.2 Dispersion Relation
2.3 Collisional Effects Due to Finite-Size Particles
2.4 Fluctuations
Chapter 3: Time Integration
3.1 Euler's First-Order Scheme
3.2 Leapfrog Scheme
3.3 Biasing Scheme
3.4 Runge-Kutta Method
3.5 Diffusion Equation
Chapter 4: Grid Method
4.1 Grid Method and the Dipole Expansion
4.2 Area Weighting Scheme
4.3 Examples of Electrostatic Codes
4.4 Spatially Periodic Systems
4.5 Consequences of the Grid for the Vlasov Theory of Plasmas
4.6 Smoother Grid Assignment
Chapter 5: Electromagnetic Model
5.1 Electromagnetic Particle Simulation Code
5.2 Analogy Between Electrodynamics and General Relativity
5.3 Absorbing Boundary for the Electromagnetic Model
5.4 Magnetoinductive Particle Model
5.5 Method of Relaxation
5.6 Hyperbolic, Parabolic, and Elliptic Equations
5.7 Classification of Second-Order P.D.E.
Chapter 6: Magnetohydrodynamic Model of Plasmas
6.1 Difficulty with the Advective Term
6.2 Lax Scheme
6.3 Lax-Wendroff Scheme
6.4 Leapfrog Scheme
6.5 Flux-Corrected Transport Method
6.6 Magnetohydrodynamic Particle Model
6.7 Reduced Magnetohydrodynamic Equations
6.8 Spectral Method
6.9 Semi-Implicit Method
6.10 Upwind Differencing
6.11 Discussion of Various Methods
Chapter 7: Guiding-Center Method
7.1 E x B Drift
7.2 Guiding-Center Model
7.3 Numerical Methods for Guiding-Center Plasmas
7.4 Polarization Drift
7.5 Geostrophic Flows
7.6 Finite Larmor Radius Effects
7.7 Gyrokinetic Model
7.8 Guiding-Center Magnetoinductive Model
Chapter 8: Hybrid Models of Plasmas
8.1 Quasineutral Electrostatic Model
8.2 Quasineutral Electromagnetic Model
8.3 Particle Electron-Fluid Ion Model
Chapter 9: Implicit Particle Codes
9.1 First Order Accurate Methods
9.2 Implicit Time Filtering
9.3 Decentered Lorentz Pusher
9.4 Techniques for Direct Implicit Advancing
9.5 Direct Implicit Electromagnetic Algorithm
9.6 Gyrokinetic Model (Revisited)
9.7 Large Time Scale—Large Spatial Scale Simulation
Chapter 10: Geometry
10.1 MHD Particle Code
10.2 Toroidal Corrections
10.3 Electrostatic Particle Code
10.4 Method of Flux Coordinates
Chapter 11: Information and Computation
11.1 The Future of Computers
11.2 Computation on a Cellular Automaton
11.3 Information Processing
11.4 Information and Entropy
11.5 Correlation Analysis and Maximum Entropy
Chapter 12: Interaction Between Radiation and a Plasma
12.1 Radiation from Particle Beams
12.2 Laser Plasma Accelerators
12.3 Ion Cyclotron Resonance Heating of a Plasma
Chapter 13: Drift Waves and Plasma Turbulence
13.1 Drift Wave Instabilities
13.2 Shear Flow Instability
13.3 Heat Convection Instability
Chapter 14: Magnetic Reconnection
14.1 Collisionless Tearing Instabilities
14.2 Linear Theory of Driven Reconnection
14.3 Fast Reconnection
14.4 Coalescence Instability
14.5 Theory of Explosive Coalescence and Comparison with Simulation
14.6 Current Loop Coalescence Model of Solar Flares
14.7 Reconnection-Driven Oscillations in Dwarf Nova Disks
Chapter 15: Transport
15.1 Monte-Carlo Method
15.2 Fokker-Planck Model
15.3 Particle Transport for Energetic Particles
15.4 Mapping Methods
Epilogue: Numerical Laboratory
Subject Index
Author Index
Credits