Kinetic-j: A computational kernel for solving the linearized Vlasov equation applied to calculations of the kinetic, configuration space plasma current for time harmonic wave electric fields

Abstract

We present the Kinetic-j code, a computational kernel for evaluating the linearized Vlasov equation with application to calculating the kinetic plasma response (current) to an applied time harmonic wave electric field. This code addresses the need for a configuration space evaluation of the plasma current to enable kinetic full-wave solvers for waves in hot plasmas to move beyond the limitations of the traditional Fourier spectral methods. We benchmark the kernel via comparison with the standard k→-space forms of the hot plasma conductivity tensor. Program summaryProgram Title:Kinetic-jProgram Files doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.17632/w6znwd42z8.1Licensing provisions: MITProgramming language: C++ / IDL / CUDA / PythonNature of problem: Configuration space evaluation of the linear, kinetic plasma current.Solution method: Direct numerical evaluation of the linearized solution of the Vlasov equation, i.e., provided a time harmonic wave electric field as input, evaluate the unperturbed Lorentz orbit of each phase-space (position and velocity) point trajectory and integrate over its time history, then take the first velocity moment to calculate current.Additional comments: This initial version is 1x-3v, and accepts input fields in either Cartesian or cylindrical coordinates. The code is hosted at https://github.com/ORNL-Fusion/kineticj.