Implicit Particle Simulation of Magnetized Plasmas

An accurate, direct method for the simulation of magnetized, multi-dimensional plasmas is developed. A time decentered particle push is combined with the direct method for implicit plasma simulation to include finite sized particle effects in an absolutely stable (under conditions for which the field corrector converges) algorithm. Second-order temporal accuracy is attained when the decentering parameter may be chosen smaller than the normalized frequency of interest. A simple iteration (renormalized Poisson equation) is used to solve the field corrector equation. Details of the two-dimensional, electrostatic, constant magnetic field, periodic case are given. Numerical results for ion-acoustic fluctuations and for an unstable gravitational interchange confirm the accuracy and efficacy of the method applied to lowfrequency plasma phenomena.