A hybrid gyrokinetic ion and isothermal electron fluid code for astrophysical plasma

This paper describes a new code for simulating astrophysical plasmas that solves a hybrid model composed of gyrokinetic ions (GKI) and an isothermal electron fluid (ITEF) [A. Schekochihin et al., Astrophys. J. Suppl. \textbf{182}, 310 (2009)]. This model captures ion kinetic effects that are importa...

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Main Authors: Kawazura, Y, Barnes, M
Format: Journal article
Published: Elsevier 2018
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author Kawazura, Y
Barnes, M
author_facet Kawazura, Y
Barnes, M
author_sort Kawazura, Y
collection OXFORD
description This paper describes a new code for simulating astrophysical plasmas that solves a hybrid model composed of gyrokinetic ions (GKI) and an isothermal electron fluid (ITEF) [A. Schekochihin et al., Astrophys. J. Suppl. \textbf{182}, 310 (2009)]. This model captures ion kinetic effects that are important near the ion gyro-radius scale while electron kinetic effects are ordered out by an electron-ion mass ratio expansion. The code is developed by incorporating the ITEF approximation into ${\tt AstroGK}$, an Eulerian $\delta f$ gyrokinetics code specialized to a slab geometry [R. Numata et al., J. Compute. Pays. \textbf{229}, 9347 (2010)]. The new code treats the linear terms in the ITEF equations implicitly while the nonlinear terms are treated explicitly. We show linear and nonlinear benchmark tests to prove the validity and applicability of the simulation code. Since the fast electron timescale is eliminated by the mass ratio expansion, the Courant--Friedrichs--Lewy condition is much less restrictive than in full gyrokinetic codes; the present hybrid code runs $\sim 2\sqrt{m_\mathrm{i}/m_\mathrm{e}} \sim 100$ times faster than ${\tt AstroGK}\ $with a single ion species and kinetic electrons where $m_\mathrm{i}/m_\mathrm{e}$ is the ion-electron mass ratio. The improvement of the computational time makes it feasible to execute ion scale gyrokinetic simulations with a high velocity space resolution and to run multiple simulations to determine the dependence of turbulent dynamics on parameters such as electron--ion temperature ratio and plasma beta.
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spelling oxford-uuid:ea521ddc-8303-48e3-bda8-b96de3d5198d2022-03-27T11:01:13ZA hybrid gyrokinetic ion and isothermal electron fluid code for astrophysical plasmaJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:ea521ddc-8303-48e3-bda8-b96de3d5198dSymplectic Elements at OxfordElsevier2018Kawazura, YBarnes, MThis paper describes a new code for simulating astrophysical plasmas that solves a hybrid model composed of gyrokinetic ions (GKI) and an isothermal electron fluid (ITEF) [A. Schekochihin et al., Astrophys. J. Suppl. \textbf{182}, 310 (2009)]. This model captures ion kinetic effects that are important near the ion gyro-radius scale while electron kinetic effects are ordered out by an electron-ion mass ratio expansion. The code is developed by incorporating the ITEF approximation into ${\tt AstroGK}$, an Eulerian $\delta f$ gyrokinetics code specialized to a slab geometry [R. Numata et al., J. Compute. Pays. \textbf{229}, 9347 (2010)]. The new code treats the linear terms in the ITEF equations implicitly while the nonlinear terms are treated explicitly. We show linear and nonlinear benchmark tests to prove the validity and applicability of the simulation code. Since the fast electron timescale is eliminated by the mass ratio expansion, the Courant--Friedrichs--Lewy condition is much less restrictive than in full gyrokinetic codes; the present hybrid code runs $\sim 2\sqrt{m_\mathrm{i}/m_\mathrm{e}} \sim 100$ times faster than ${\tt AstroGK}\ $with a single ion species and kinetic electrons where $m_\mathrm{i}/m_\mathrm{e}$ is the ion-electron mass ratio. The improvement of the computational time makes it feasible to execute ion scale gyrokinetic simulations with a high velocity space resolution and to run multiple simulations to determine the dependence of turbulent dynamics on parameters such as electron--ion temperature ratio and plasma beta.
spellingShingle Kawazura, Y
Barnes, M
A hybrid gyrokinetic ion and isothermal electron fluid code for astrophysical plasma
title A hybrid gyrokinetic ion and isothermal electron fluid code for astrophysical plasma
title_full A hybrid gyrokinetic ion and isothermal electron fluid code for astrophysical plasma
title_fullStr A hybrid gyrokinetic ion and isothermal electron fluid code for astrophysical plasma
title_full_unstemmed A hybrid gyrokinetic ion and isothermal electron fluid code for astrophysical plasma
title_short A hybrid gyrokinetic ion and isothermal electron fluid code for astrophysical plasma
title_sort hybrid gyrokinetic ion and isothermal electron fluid code for astrophysical plasma
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