Vlasov laser-plasma interaction simulations with a moving grid

Nicolas Crouseilles (1) , Alain Ghizzo (1) , Stéphanie Salmon (1, 2)

1 CALVI - Scientific computation and visualization
2 IRMA - Institut de Recherche Mathématique Avancée

The present work focuses on the numerical resolution of a reduced $1$D Vlasov-Maxwell system introduced recently in the physical literature for studying laser-plasma interaction. This system can be seen as a standard Vlasov equation in which the force term is split into two terms: the classical electrostatic field obtained from the Poisson's equation and a magnetic term evolving through Maxwell's type equations. A semi-Lagrangian code is used to study the interaction of ultrashort electromagnetic pulse with plasma; however during the major part of the simulation, many of the grid points are wasted. We then introduce a dynamic mesh which allows us to consider the part of the phase space where the distribution function is not zero.

Mots clés: Vlasov equation; semi-Lagrangian method; relativistic regime; moving grid

Domaines: Analyse numérique [math.NA]; Physique Numérique [physics.comp-ph]

Nicolas Crouseilles, Alain Ghizzo, Stéphanie Salmon. Vlasov laser-plasma interaction simulations with a moving grid. [Research Report] RR-6109, INRIA. 2007. ⟨inria-00127747v2⟩