A Tensor-Train Discontinuous Galerkin Method for the Vlasov-Maxwell System

Abstract

We present a tensor-train discontinuous Galerkin (TT-DG) formulation for the Vlasov--Maxwell system that combines a modal DG discretization with low-rank tensor representations of the phase-space solution and discrete operators. The formulation exploits the tensor-product structure of the DG discretization to perform quadrature, differentiation, nonlinear upwind flux evaluation, and time integration directly in compressed form. The method is evaluated on several standard 1D2V Vlasov--Maxwell benchmark problems, including the streaming Weibel instability, weak Landau damping, and two-stream instability problems. Across these problems, the TT formulation reproduces the accuracy and conservation behavior of the underlying full-grid DG discretization while substantially reducing memory usage and runtime. For weakly nonlinear problems, compression ratios exceeding $10^4$ are obtained together with significant speedups relative to the full-grid solver. For the strongly nonlinear two-stream instability problem, the TT formulation remains effective despite reduced compressibility caused by fine-scale phase-space filamentation. These results demonstrate that tensor-train representations provide an effective approach for reducing the computational cost of deterministic DG-based kinetic plasma simulations while retaining the favorable numerical properties of the underlying discretization.