A fluid–kinetic hybrid electron model for electromagnetic simulations

Abstract

A fluid–kinetic hybrid electron model for electromagnetic simulations of finite-β plasmas is developed based on an expansion of the electron response using the electron–ion mass ratio as a small parameter. (Here β is the ratio of plasma pressure to magnetic pressure.) The model accurately recovers low frequency plasma dielectric responses and faithfully preserves nonlinear kinetic effects (e.g., phase space trapping). Maximum numerical efficiency is achieved by overcoming the electron Courant condition and suppressing high frequency modes. This method is most useful for nonlinear kinetic (particle-in-cell or Vlasov) simulations of electromagnetic microturbulence and Alfvénic instabilities in magnetized plasmas.