Improved modeling of relativistic collisions and collisional ionization in particle-in-cell codes

Abstract

An improved Monte Carlo collisional scheme modeling both elastic and inelastic interactions has been implemented into the particle-in-cell code CALDER [E. Lefebvre et al., Nucl. Fusion 43, 629 (2003)]. Based on the technique proposed by Nanbu and Yonemura [J. Comput. Phys. 145, 639 (1998)] allowing to handle arbitrarily weighted macro-particles, this binary collision scheme uses a more compact and accurate relativistic formulation than the algorithm recently worked out by Sentoku and Kemp [J. Comput. Phys. 227, 6846 (2008)]. Our scheme is validated through several test cases, demonstrating, in particular, its capability of modeling the electrical resistivity and stopping power of a solid-density plasma over a broad parameter range. A relativistic collisional ionization scheme is developed within the same framework, and tested in several physical scenarios. Finally, our scheme is applied in a set of integrated particle-in-cell simulations of laser-driven fast electron transport.