Sherwood 2015

Abstract Details

files Add files

status:file name:submitted:by:
approvedshi_2015_sherwood_abstract.pdf2015-01-19 20:20:34Eric Shi

Recent Results from the Gkeyll Discontinuous Galerkin Kinetic Code

Author: Eric L Shi
Requested Type: Poster Only
Submitted: 2015-01-19 20:35:35

Co-authors: Ammar H. Hakim, Gregory W. Hammett, Ian G. Abel, Timothy Stoltzfus-Dueck

Contact Info:
Princeton University
Princeton Plasma Physics Labor
Princeton, NJ   08543
USA

Abstract Text:
Gkeyll is a discontinuous Galerkin (DG) code under development for modeling the edge plasma in fusion devices and basic plasma experiments. Gkeyll implements high-order accurate, energy-conserving numerical algorithms for general Hamiltonian systems and for collision/diffusion terms. We will discuss details of the recent extension of the code dimensionality to 2x+2v, which has been tested with simulations of ETG-driven turbulence in a local 2D limit. We are working on extension of the code to the full 3x+2v of gyrokinetics. The inclusion of magnetic fluctuations with kinetic electrons has been challenging for many gyrokinetic algorithms in the past, requiring special treatment to reduce the Ampere cancellation problem. We have developed novel versions of DG that can handle gyrokinetic magnetic fluctuations in an efficient way, finding that it is important that the basis functions for the electrostatic potential $phi$ be in a smoother subspace than for the parallel vector potential $A_{||}$. As a test of the algorithm, we show that Gkeyll reproduces the Alfven wave dispersion relation even at very low $k_perp rho_s$ in an efficient way with just the normal time step needed to resolve the electron dynamics.

This research was supported by U.S. DOE contract DE-AC02-09CH11466
through the Max-Planck/Princeton Center for Plasma Physics and the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, and by the Princeton Center for Theoretical Sciences.

Comments:
Prefer to place this in the final poster session, next to the poster by Greg Hammett.

March 16-18, 2015
The Courant Institute, New York University