Monte Carlo methods and their analysis for Coulomb collisions in multicomponent plasmas

Multilevel Monte Carlo simulation of Coulomb collisions

We consider the development of accurate and efficient numerical methods for the solution of the Vlasov–Landau equation describing a collisional plasma. The methods combine a Lagrangian approach for the Vlasov solver with a fast spectral method for the solution of the Landau operator. To this goal, new modified spectral methods for the Landau integral which are capable to capture correctly the Maxwellian steady state are introduced. A particular care is devoted to the construction of Implicit–Explicit and Exponential Runge–Kutta methods that permit to achieve high-order and efficient time integration of the collisional step. Several numerical tests are reported which show the high accuracy of the numerical schemes here presented.

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Numerical methods for plasma physics in collisional regimes

A Monte Carlo method with negative particles for Coulomb collisions

The synthesis of control laws for interacting agent-based dynamics and their mean-field limit is studied. A linearization-based approach is used for the computation of sub-optimal feedback laws obtained from the solution of differential matrix Riccati equations. Quantification of dynamic performance of such control laws leads to theoretical estimates on suitable linearization points of the nonlinear dynamics. Subsequently, the feedback laws are embedded into nonlinear model predictive control framework where the control is updated adaptively in time according to dynamic information on moments of linear mean-field dynamics. The performance and robustness of the proposed methodology is assessed through different numerical experiments in collective dynamics.

Moment-Driven Predictive Control of Mean-Field Collective Dynamics.

We consider the development of Monte Carlo schemes for molecules with Coulomb interactions. We generalize the classic algorithms of Bird and Nanbu-Babovsky for rarefied gas dynamics to the Coulomb case thanks to the approximation introduced by Bobylev and Nanbu [A. V. Bobylev and K. Nanbu, Theory of collision algorithms for gases
and plasmas based on the Boltzmann equation and the Landau-Fokker-Planck equation, Physical Review E, vol. 61, no. 4, pp. 4576–4586, 2000.]. Thus, instead of considering the original Boltzmann collision operator, the schemes are constructed through the use of an approximated Boltzmann operator. With the above choice larger time steps are possible in simulations; moreover the expensive acceptance-rejection procedure for collisions is avoided and every particle collides. Error analysis and comparisons with the original Bobylev-Nanbu (BN) scheme are performed. The numerical results show agreement with the theoretical convergence rate of the approximated Boltzmann operator and the better performance of Bird-type schemes with respect to the original scheme.

/pdf/direct-simulation-monte-carlo-schemes-for-coulomb-2dh7f9ppq8.pdf

Direct simulation Monte Carlo schemes for Coulomb interactions in plasmas

We consider the development of Monte Carlo schemes for molecules with Coulomb interactions. We generalize the classic algorithms of Bird and Nanbu-Babovsky for rarefied gas dynamics to the Coulomb case thanks to the approximation introduced by Bobylev and Nanbu (Theory of collision algorithms for gases and plasmas based on the Boltzmann equation and the Landau-Fokker-Planck equation, Physical Review E, Vol. 61, 2000). Thus, instead of considering the original Boltzmann collision operator, the schemes are constructed through the use of an approximated Boltzmann operator. With the above choice larger time steps are possible in simulations; moreover the expensive acceptance-rejection procedure for collisions is avoided and every particle collides. Error analysis and comparisons with the original Bobylev-Nanbu (BN) scheme are performed. The numerical results show agreement with the theoretical convergence rate of the approximated Boltzmann operator and the better performance of Bird-type schemes with respect to the original scheme.

Russell Caflisch

Papers

Direct simulation Monte Carlo schemes for Coulomb interactions in plasmas

Direct simulation Monte Carlo schemes for Coulomb interactions in plasmas