Going Beyond the MHD Approximation: Physics-Based Numerical Solution of the CGL Equations

TL;DR

This paper introduces a robust numerical method for solving the CGL equations, which describe anisotropic plasma behavior, overcoming previous challenges related to hyperbolicity and pressure anisotropy.

Contribution

A physics-informed pressure relaxation technique based on pitch-angle scattering is proposed, ensuring hyperbolicity and robustness of CGL-based numerical simulations across all magnetic field strengths.

Findings

The new algorithm maintains hyperbolicity even with large pressure anisotropy.

It performs well in both weakly and strongly collisional plasma regimes.

Successfully simulates complex space plasma interactions, including shock-magnetosphere interactions.

Abstract

We present a new numerical model for solving the Chew-Goldberger-Low system of equations describing a bi-Maxwellian plasma in a magnetic field. Heliospheric and geospace environments are often observed to be in an anisotropic state with distinctly different parallel and perpendicular pressure components. The CGL system represents the simplest leading order correction to the common isotropic MHD model that still allows to incorporate the latter's most desirable features. However, the CGL system presents several numerical challenges: the system is not in conservation form, the source terms are stiff, and unlike MHD it is prone to a loss of hyperbolicity if the parallel and perpendicular pressures become too different. The usual cure is to bring the parallel and perpendicular pressures closer to one another; but that has usually been done in an ad hoc manner. We present a physics-informed method of pressure relaxation based on the idea of pitch-angle scattering that keeps the numerical system hyperbolic and naturally leads to zero anisotropy in the limit of very large plasma beta. Numerical codes based on the CGL equations can, therefore, be made to function robustly for any magnetic field strength, including the limit where the magnetic field approaches zero. The capabilities of our new algorithm are demonstrated using several stringent test problems that provide a comparison of the CGL equations in the weakly and strongly collisional limits. This includes a test problem that mimics interaction of a shock with a magnetospheric environment in 2D.