Conservative Algorithms for Non-Maxwellian Plasma Kinetics

TL;DR

This paper introduces conservative numerical algorithms for non-Maxwellian plasma kinetics that accurately model electron and atomic state interactions, ensuring mass, charge, and energy conservation in simulations.

Contribution

The paper presents new conservative algorithms for plasma kinetics that handle inelastic collisions and electron-electron interactions with guaranteed conservation properties.

Findings

Algorithms accurately conserve mass, charge, and energy.

Numerical tests demonstrate high accuracy and stability.

Applicable to non-uniform energy grid discretizations.

Abstract

We present a numerical model and a set of conservative algorithms for Non-Maxwellian plasma kinetics with inelastic collisions. These algorithms self-consistently solve for the time evolution of an isotropic electron energy distribution function interacting with an atomic state distribution function of an arbitrary number of levels through collisional excitation, deexcitation, as well as ionization and recombination. Electron-electron collisions, responsible for thermalization of the electron distribution, are also included in the model. The proposed algorithms guarantee mass/charge and energy conservation in a single step, and is applied to the case of non-uniform gridding of the energy axis in the phase space of the electron distribution function. Numerical test cases are shown to demonstrate the accuracy of the method and its conservation properties.