Advances in the Implementation of the Exactly Energy Conserving Semi-Implicit (ECsim) Particle in Cell Method

TL;DR

This paper explores improvements to the ECsim Particle in Cell method, focusing on mass matrix construction, noise reduction, and computational efficiency, to enhance plasma simulation accuracy and performance.

Contribution

It introduces three modifications to the ECsim mass matrix construction, including sub-cycling, smoothing, and an approximation for implicit moment method conversion.

Findings

Sub-cycling affects the mass matrix accuracy.

Smoothing reduces noise without losing energy conservation.

Approximate mass matrix enables implicit moment method.

Abstract

The Energy Conserving semi-implicit method (ECsim), presented by Lapenta in 2017, is a Particle in Cell (PIC) algorithm for the simulation of plasmas. Energy conservation is achieved within a semi-implicit formulation that does not require any non-linear solver. A mass matrix is introduced to express linearly the particle-field coupling. With the mass matrix the algorithm preserves energy conservation to machine precision. The construction of the mass matrix is the central nature of the method and also the main cost of the computational cycle. We analyze here three methods that modify the construction of the mass matrix. First, we consider how the sub-cycling of the particle motion modifies the mass matrix. Second, we introduce a form of smoothing that reduces the noise while retaining exact energy conservation. Finally, we discuss an approximation of the mass matrix that transform the ECsim scheme to the implicit moment method.