2025/03/21 by Annika Stier, Stier, Annika, A. Bottino +9
Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #FOS: Physical sciences #Fusion materials and technologies #Ionosphere and magnetosphere dynamics #Magnetic confinement fusion research #Plasma Physics (physics.plasm-ph)
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2503.17188
openalex publication_date 2025/03/21 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
The gyrokinetic particle-in-cell code PICLS is a full-f finite element tool to simulate turbulence in the tokamak scrape-off layer. During the previous year, the capability of PICLS was extended to encompass electromagnetic effects. Successful tests using the method of manufactured solutions were conducted on the freshly added Ampère's-law-solver, and shear Alfvén waves were simulated to verify the new electromagnetic time step. However, as a code based on the p||-formulation of the gyrokinetic equations, PICLS is affected by the Ampère-cancellation problem. In order to bring higher-beta simulations within reach of our computational capacity, we implemented the mixed-variable formulation with pullback-scheme in a similar fashion to, e.g., EUTERPE, ORB5, or XGC. Here, we present the successful verification of the different electromagnetic formulations of PICLS by simulating shear-Alfvén waves in a test setup designed to minimize kinetic effects.