Semi-Lagrangian Methods for A Plasma Hybrid Model with Multi-Species Kinetic Ions and Massless Electrons
Yingzhe Li, Philip J. Morrison, Eric Sonnendrücker
Abstract
Abstract Structure preserving exact splitting based semi-Lagrangian methods are proposed for a plasma hybrid model with kinetic ions and massless electrons. Two subsystems with mass, momentum, and energy conservation are obtained by a Poisson bracket-based splitting method. For the subsystem in which the distribution functions and the fields are coupled, the second order and reversible modified implicit mid-point rule is used in time with the specially designed mean velocity. The distribution functions are not involved in the iterations and are solved by exact splittings with only one dimensional advections, which makes the proposed schemes efficient. The cancellation problem is overcome by the numerical schemes constructed. Moreover, for the case with a periodic boundary condition, the magnetic field obtained is divergence free, mass, momentum, and energy are conserved. The methods can be extended to cases with multiple ion species.
BibTeX
@article{Li_2026,
title={Semi-Lagrangian Methods for A Plasma Hybrid Model with Multi-Species Kinetic Ions and Massless Electrons: Semi-Lagrangian Methods for a Hybrid Model},
volume={108},
ISSN={1573-7691},
url={http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10915-026-03406-5},
DOI={10.1007/s10915-026-03406-5},
number={3},
journal={Journal of Scientific Computing},
publisher={Springer Science and Business Media LLC},
author={Li, Yingzhe and Morrison, Philip J. and Sonnendrücker, Eric},
year={2026},
month=July }