First-Principles Simulation of Electron-Ion Collisional Transport in Magnetized and Unmagnetized Plasmas

Abstract

Accurate electron-ion collision models are central to predicting transport in fusion and space plasmas, yet most practical formulations rely on binary-collision assumptions and impact-parameter cutoffs whose quantitative accuracy is difficult to assess directly. We develop a first-principles simulation framework for collisional transport by solving the Newton-Lorentz equations for test electrons in the many-body electric field of a Debye-screened ion background, without imposing binary-collision closures or artificial lower cutoffs. The method combines explicit force summation within a Debye sphere, a volume-preserving particle pusher, and adaptive time stepping, enabling stable and scalable simulations in both unmagnetized and magnetized plasmas. Using simulation-based measures of momentum relaxation and cross-field diffusion, we recover the classical scalings for the electron-ion collision frequency and perpendicular diffusion coefficient, namely $\nu_{ei} \propto v_{th}^{-3}$ and $D_\perp \propto B^{-2}$. Within the parameter range studied, both simulated coefficients are lower than their corresponding classical estimates by approximately 15-25%. These regime-specific benchmark results indicate that classical transport theory captures the leading scaling behavior, but that the corresponding quantitative prefactors can remain sensitive to many-body and near-field effects in the simulated regime. The framework therefore provides a computational benchmark for testing and improving reduced collision operators and transport models.