A treecode to simulate dust-plasma interactions

TL;DR

This paper presents 'pot', a novel treecode-based microscopic simulator for dust-plasma interactions, capable of modeling charge dynamics of spheroidal dust grains in various plasma conditions.

Contribution

The paper introduces 'pot', a new plasma simulation code utilizing Barnes-Hut treecode, Boris integrator, and Hutchinson's reinjection, specifically designed for dust-plasma interaction studies.

Findings

Simulations of dust grain charging in magnetized plasmas.

Results challenge the validity of Boltzmann relation in hybrid PIC codes.

Demonstrates the effectiveness of treecode algorithms in plasma simulations.

Abstract

The interaction of a small object with surrounding plasma is an area of plasma-physics research with a multitude of applications. This paper introduces the plasma octree code pot, a microscopic simulator of a spheroidal dust grain in a plasma. pot uses the Barnes-Hut treecode algorithm to perform $N$-body simulations of electrons and ions in the vicinity of a chargeable spheroid, employing also the Boris particle-motion integrator and Hutchinson's reinjection algorithm from SCEPTIC; a description of the implementation of all three algorithms is provided. We present results from pot simulations of the charging of spheres in magnetized plasmas, and of spheroids in unmagnetized plasmas. The results call into question the validity of using the Boltzmann relation in hybrid PIC codes.