AstroGK: Astrophysical Gyrokinetics Code

TL;DR

AstroGK is a gyrokinetic simulation code designed for astrophysical plasma research, solving electromagnetic equations in five-dimensional space, with benchmarking and performance analysis included.

Contribution

The paper introduces AstroGK, a new Eulerian gyrokinetic code tailored for astrophysical applications, extending previous codes by removing magnetic geometry effects.

Findings

Code successfully benchmarks linear and nonlinear problems.

Demonstrates efficient serial and parallel performance scaling.

Applicable to fundamental kinetic plasma studies in astrophysics.

Abstract

The gyrokinetic simulation code AstroGK is developed to study fundamental aspects of kinetic plasmas and for applications mainly to astrophysical problems. AstroGK is an Eulerian slab code that solves the electromagnetic Gyrokinetic-Maxwell equations in five-dimensional phase space, and is derived from the existing gyrokinetics code GS2 by removing magnetic geometry effects. Algorithms used in the code are described. The code is benchmarked using linear and nonlinear problems. Serial and parallel performance scalings are also presented.