Abstract
A set of warm plasma dispersion relations appropriate to a large class of electromagnetic plasma simulation codes is derived. The numerical Cherenkov instability is shown by analytic and numerical analysis of these dispersion relations to be the most significant nonphysical effect involving transverse electromagnetic waves. The instability arises due to a spurious phase shift between resonant particles and light waves, caused by a basic incompatibility between the Lagrangian treatment of particle positions and the Eulerian treatment of particle velocities characteristic of most PIC-CIC algorithms. It is demonstrated that, through the use of canonical momentum, this mismatch is alleviated sufficiently to completely eliminate the Cherenkov instability. Collateral effects on simulation accuracy and on other numerical instabilities appear to be minor.
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