Particle-in-cell simulation method for macroscopic degenerate plasmas.

Abstract

Nowadays hydrodynamic equations coupled with external equation of states provided by quantum mechanical calculations is a widely used approach for simulations of macroscopic degenerate plasmas. Although such an approach is proven to be efficient and shows many good features, especially for large scale simulations, it encounters intrinsic challenges when involving kinetic effects. As a complement, here we have invented a fully kinetic numerical approach for macroscopic degenerate plasmas. This approach is based on first principle Boltzmann-Uhling-Uhlenbeck equations coupled with Maxwell's equation, and is eventually achieved via an existing particle-in-cell simulation code named LAPINS. In this approach, degenerate particles obey Fermi-Dirac statistics and nondegenerate particles follow the typical Maxwell-Boltzmann statistics. The equation of motion of both degenerate and nondegenerate particles are governed by long range collective electromagnetic fields and close particle-particle collisions. Especially, Boltzmann-Uhling-Uhlenbeck collisions ensure that evolution of degenerate particles is enforced by the Pauli exclusion principle. The code is applied to several benchmark simulations, including electronic conductivity for aluminium with varying temperatures from 2eV to 50eV, thermalization of alpha particles in a cold fuel shell in inertial confinement fusion, and rapid heating of solid sample by short and intense laser pulses.