Recent development of fully kinetic particle-in-cell method and its application to fusion plasma instability study

Abstract

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This paper reviews the recent advancements of the algorithm and application to fusion plasma instability study of the fully kinetic Particle-in-Cell (PIC) method. The strengths and limitations of both explicit and implicit PIC methods are described and compared. Additionally, the semi-implicit PIC method and the code ECsim used in our research are introduced. Furthermore, the application of PIC methods in fusion plasma instabilities is delved into. A detailed account of the recent progress achieved in the realm of tokamak plasma simulation through fully kinetic PIC simulations is also provided. Finally the prospective future development and application of PIC methods are discussed as well.

Keywords

• fusion
• tokamak
• tearing mode
• fully kinetic
• particle-in-cell (PIC)
• magnetic islands