Effects of Relativistic Binary Collisions on PIC Simulation of Laser Plasmas

Abstract

Relativistic binary collision effects on the intense laser plasma interactions are investigated by introducing the Monte Carlo Coulomb model into a particle simulation code. Our collision model is fully relativistic, where the collision frequency is calculated in the frame work of relativistic electro-dynamics. By the particle simulation, the following two phenomena which are important in laser plasmas are investigated. The first one is for the electron heat transport in a steep temperature gradient and the second is for the electron energy distribution function of plasmas heated by a relativistic intensity laser irradiation. The results of the simulations are compared with the results of numerical analysis of the Fokker-Planck equation.