On the particle and electromagnetic boundary conditions in a mesothermal plasma flow

Abstract

The fully kinetic modeling of mesothermal plasma flows presents significant challenges in the description of boundary conditions for the electrons and the electromagnetic field. Due to their higher mobility compared to ions, electrons extend downstream of the ions, which hinders the implementation of the outflow boundary conditions during transient states. Although the electron drift velocity, $u_e$, is usually neglected as $u_e \simeq u_i < v_{th,e}$, where $u_i$ is the bulk velocity of the ions and $v_{th,e}$ is the thermal velocity of the electrons, we will show how accounting for it, both at the injection of particles and at the outflow boundary condition, is of great importance to achieve quasi-neutrality of charge and current densities. A new partial reflection model for electrons is presented to represent quasi-steady and transitory states. Additionally, we will show how we can employ Ampere-Maxwell's law to better represent the transitory electric field at the outflow boundary compared to the classical `zero-field' Neumann boundary without requiring any numerical parameters. With these new boundary conditions, we improve the quasi-steady and transitory descriptions of expanding mesothermal plasmas.