A reduced approach to modeling the electromagnetic Weibel instability and relativistic electron beam transport in collisionless background plasma is developed. Beam electrons are modeled by macroparticles and the background plasma is represented by electron fluid. Conservation of generalized vorticity and quasineutrality of the plasma-beam system are used to simplify the governing equations. The method is suitable for modeling the nonlinear stages of collisionless beam-plasma interaction. A computationally efficient code based on this reduced description is developed and benchmarked against a standard particle-in-cell code. The full-scale two-dimensional numerical simulation of the Weibel instability saturation of a low-current electron beam is presented. Using the present approach, linear growth rates of the Weibel instability are derived for the cold and finite-temperature beams.
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April 2007
Research Article|
April 18 2007
Computationally efficient description of relativistic electron beam transport in collisionless plasma
Oleg Polomarov;
Oleg Polomarov
Department of Physics and Institute for Fusion Studies,
The University of Texas at Austin
, Austin, Texas 78712
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Adam B. Sefkow;
Adam B. Sefkow
Plasma Physics Laboratory,
Princeton University
, Princeton, New Jersey 08543
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Igor Kaganovich;
Igor Kaganovich
Plasma Physics Laboratory,
Princeton University
, Princeton, New Jersey 08543
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Gennady Shvets
Gennady Shvets
Department of Physics and Institute for Fusion Studies,
The University of Texas at Austin
, Austin, Texas 78712
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Phys. Plasmas 14, 043103 (2007)
Article history
Received:
July 28 2006
Accepted:
January 24 2007
Citation
Oleg Polomarov, Adam B. Sefkow, Igor Kaganovich, Gennady Shvets; Computationally efficient description of relativistic electron beam transport in collisionless plasma. Phys. Plasmas 1 April 2007; 14 (4): 043103. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.2710812
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