arXiv subjects

Claudia Negulescu

Publications and source records attributed to Claudia Negulescu.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2025

Spectral scheme for an energetic Fokker-Planck equation with $\kappa$-distribution steady states

The concern of the present paper is the design of efficient numerical schemes for a specific Fokker-Planck equation describing the dynamics of energetic particles occurring in thermonuclear fusion plasmas (runaway electrons for example). In the long-time limit, the velocity distribution function of these particles tends towards a thermal non-equilibrium $\kappa$-distribution function which is a steady-state of the considered Fokker-Planck equation. These $\kappa$-distribution functions have the particularity of being only algebraically decaying for large velocities, thus describing very well suprathermal particle populations. Our aim is to present two efficient spectral methods for the simulation of such energetic particle dynamics. The first method will be based on rational Chebyshev basis functions, rather than on Hermite basis sets, which are the basis of choice for Maxwellian steady states. The second method is based on a different polynomial basis set, constructed via the Gram-Schmidt orthogonalisation process. These two new spectral schemes, specifically adapted to the here considered physical context, shall permit to cope with the long-time asymptotics without significant numerical costs.

math.AP↗

arXiv2022

Fokker-planck Multi-species Equations In The Adiabatic Asymptotics

The main concern of the present paper is the study of the multi-scale dynamics of thermonuclear fusion plasmas via a multi-species Fokker-Planck kinetic model. One of the goals is the generalization of the standard Fokker-Planck collision operator to a multispecies one, conserving mass, total momentum and energy, as well as satisfying Boltzmann's H-theorem. Secondly, the paper investigates in more details the reduced model used for the electron description in present simulations, and which considers the electrons in a thermodynamic equilibrium (adiabatic regime), whereas the ions are kept kinetic. On the one hand, we perform some mathematical asymptotic limits to obtain in the electron/ion low mass ratio limit the above-mentioned electron adiabatic regime. On the other hand, we develop a numerical scheme , based on a Hermite spectral method, and perfom numerical simulations to illustrate and investigate in more details this asymptotics.

math.NA↗

arXiv2020

Mathematical modelling of charge transport in graphene heterojunctions

A typical graphene heterojunction device can be divided into two classical zones, where the transport is basically diffusive, separated by a "quantum active region" (e.g., a locally gated region), where the charge carriers are scattered according to the laws of quantum mechanics.In this paper we derive a mathematical model of such a device, where the classical regions are described by drift-diffusion equations and the quantum zone is seen as an interface where suitable transmission conditions are imposed that take into account the quantum scattering process. Numerical simulations show good agreement with experimental data.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2020

Quantum transmission conditions for diffusive transport in graphene with steep potentials

We present a formal derivation of a drift-diffusion model for stationary electron transport in graphene, in presence of sharp potential profiles, such as barriers and steps. Assuming the electric potential to have steep variations within a strip of vanishing width on a macroscopic scale, such strip is viewed as a quantum interface that couples the classical regions at its left and right sides. In the two classical regions, where the potential is assumed to be smooth, electron and hole transport is described in terms of semiclassical kinetic equations. The diffusive limit of the kinetic model is derived by means of a Hilbert expansion and a boundary layer analysis, and consists of drift-diffusion equations in the classical regions, coupled by quantum diffusive transmission conditions through the interface. The boundary layer analysis leads to the discussion of a four-fold Milne (half-space, half-range) transport problem.

math-ph↗

arXiv2018

Asymptotic-Preserving scheme for the resolution of evolution equations with stiff transport terms

We develop an asymptotic-preserving scheme to solve evolution problems containing stiff transport terms. This scheme is based to a micro-macro decomposition of the unknown, coupled with a stabilization procedure. The numerical method is applied to the Vlasov equation in the gyrokinetic regime and to the Vlasov-Poisson 1D1V equation, which occur in plasma physics. The asymptotic-preserving properties of our procedure permit to study the long-time behavior of these models. In particular, we limit drastically by this method the numerical pollution, appearing in such time asymptotics when using classical numerical schemes.

math.NA↗

arXiv2017

Asymptotic-Preserving scheme for a strongly anisotropic vorticity equation arising in fusion plasma modelling

The electric potential is an essential quantity for the confinement process of tokamak plasmas, with important impact on the performances of fusion reactors. Understanding its evolution in the peripheral region - the part of the plasma interacting with the wall of the device - is of crucial importance, since it governs the boundary conditions for the burning core plasma. The aim of the present paper is to study numerically the evolution of the electric potential in this peripheral plasma region. In particular, we are interested in introducing an efficient Asymptotic-Preserving numerical scheme capable to cope with the strong anisotropy of the problem as well as the non-linear boundary conditions, and this with no huge computational costs. This work constitutes the numerical follow-up of the more mathematical paper by C. Negulescu, A. Nouri, Ph. Ghendrih, Y. Sarazin, "Existence and uniqueness of the electric potential profile in the edge of tokamak plasmas when constrained by the plasma-wall boundary physics".

physics.plasm-ph↗

arXiv2017

De coherence for a heavy particle interacting with a light one: new analysis and numerics

We study the dynamics of a quantum heavy particle undergoing a repulsive interaction with a light one. The main motivation is the detailed description of the loss of coherence induced on a quantum system (in our model, the heavy particle) by the interaction with the environment (the light particle). The content of the paper is analytical and numerical. Concerning the analytical contribution, we show that an approximate description of the dynamics of the heavy particle can be carried out in two steps: first comes the interaction, then the free evolution. In particular, all effects of the interaction can be embodied in the action of a collision operator that acts on the initial state of the heavy particle. With respect to previous analytical results on the same topics, we turn our focus from the Møller wave operator to the full scattering operator, whose analysis proves to be simpler. Concerning the numerical contribution, we exploit the previous analysis to construct an efficient numerical scheme that turns the original, multiscale, two-body problem in two one-body problems which can be solved separately. This leads to a considerable gain in simulation time. We present and interpret some simulations carried out on specific one-dimensional systems by using the new scheme. Finally, we propose a new description of the mechanism of decoherence induced by scattering: decoherence is produced by an interference-free bump which arises from the initial state of the heavy particle immediately after the collision. We support such a picture by numerical evidence as well as by an approximation theorem.

math-ph↗

arXiv2017

Hybrid classical-quantum models for charge transport in graphene with sharp potentials

We give a concise account on the derivation of hybrid quantum-classical models for stationary electron transport in graphene, in presence of sharp potential steps of barriers. A quantum region (an asymptotically thin strip around the potential step or barrier) is coupled through the quantum scattering data to a classical region, where electron transport is described in terms of semiclassical kinetic equations. The diffusive limit of the kinetic model is derived by means of the Chapman-Enskog method, which requires the introduction of a boundary layer corrector and the discussion of a system of coupled Milne problems.

math-ph↗

arXiv2016

Numerical study of an anisotropic Vlasov equation arising in plasma physics

Goal of this paper is to investigate several numerical schemes for the resolution of two anisotropic Vlasov equations. These two toy-models arise from a kinetic description of a tokamak plasma confined by strong magnetic fields. The simplicity of our toy-models permits to better understand the features of each scheme, in particular to investigate their asymptotic-preserving properties, in the aim to choose then the most adequate numerical scheme for upcoming, more realistic simulations.

math.NA↗

arXiv2016

The quantum beating and its numerical simulation

We examine the suppression of quantum beating in a one dimensional non- linear double well potential, made up of two focusing nonlinear point interactions. The investigation of the Schr\"odinger dynamics is reduced to the study of a system of coupled nonlinear Volterra integral equations. For various values of the geometric and dynamical parameters of the model we give analytical and numerical results on the way states, which are initially confined in one well, evolve. We show that already for a nonlinearity exponent well below the critical value there is complete suppression of the typical beating behavior characterizing the linear quantum case.

math-ph↗

arXiv2016

Stationary Schr\"odinger equation in the semi-classical limit: numerical coupling of oscillatory and evanescent regions

This paper is concerned with a 1D Schr\"odinger scattering problem involving both oscillatory and evanescent regimes, separated by jump discontinuities in the potential function, to avoid "turning points". We derive a non-overlapping domain decomposition method to split the original problem into sub-problems on these regions, both for the continuous and afterwards for the discrete problem. Further, a hybrid WKB-based numerical method is designed for its efficient and accurate solution in the semi-classical limit: a WKB-marching method for the oscillatory regions and a FEM with WKB-basis functions in the evanescent regions. We provide a complete error analysis of this hybrid method and illustrate our convergence results by numerical tests.

math.NA↗

arXiv2015

A hybrid method for anisotropic elliptic problems based on the coupling of an Asymptotic-Preserving method with the Asymptotic-Limit model

This paper presents a hybrid numerical method to solve efficiently a class of highly anisotropic elliptic problems. The anisotropy is aligned with one coordinate-axis and its strength is described by a parameter $\eps \in (0,1]$, which can largely vary in the study domain. Our hybrid model is based on asymptotic techniques and couples (spatially) an Asymptotic-Preserving model with its asymptotic Limit model, the latter being used in regions where the anisotropy parameter $\eps$ is small. Adequate coupling conditions link the two models. Aim of this hybrid procedure is to reduce the computational time for problems where the region of small $\eps$-values extends over a significant part of the domain, and this due to the reduced complexity of the limit model.

math.NA↗

arXiv2015

Numerical analysis of an asymptotic-preserving scheme for anisotropic elliptic equations

The main purpose of the present paper is to study from a numerical analysis point of view some robust methods designed to cope with stiff (highly anisotropic) elliptic problems. The so-called asymptotic-preserving schemes studied in this paper are very efficient in dealing with a wide range of $\varepsilon$-values, where $0 < \varepsilon \ll 1$ is the stiffness parameter, responsible for the high anisotropy of the problem. In particular, these schemes are even able to capture the macroscopic properties of the system, as $\varepsilon$ tends towards zero, while the discretization parameters remain fixed. The objective of this work shall be to prove some $\varepsilon$-independent convergence results for these numerical schemes and put hence some more rigor in the construction of such AP-methods.

math.NA↗

arXiv2013

Bounded weak solutions to matrix drift-diffusion model for spin-coherent electron transport in semiconductors

The global-in-time existence and uniqueness of bounded weak solutions to a spinorial matrix drift-diffusion model for semiconductors is proved. Developing the electron density matrix in the Pauli basis, the coefficients (charge density and spin-vector density) satisfy a parabolic $4\times 4$ cross-diffusion system. The key idea of the existence proof is to work with different variables: the spin-up and spin-down densities as well as the parallel and perpendicular components of the spin-vector density with respect to the magnetization. In these variables, the diffusion matrix becomes diagonal. The proofs of the $L^\infty$ estimates are based on Stampacchia truncation as well as Moser- and Alikakos-type iteration arguments. The monotonicity of the entropy (or free energy) is also proved. Numerical experiments in one space dimension using a finite-volume discretization indicate that the entropy decays exponentially fast to the equilibrium state.

math.AP↗

arXiv2012

Highly anisotropic temperature balance equation and its asymptotic-preserving resolution

This paper deals with the numerical study of a nonlinear, strongly anisotropic heat equation. The use of standard schemes in this situation leads to poor results, due to the high anisotropy. An Asymptotic-Preserving method is introduced in this paper, which is second-order accurate in both, temporal and spacial variables. The discretization in time is done using an L-stable Runge-Kutta scheme. The convergence of the method is shown to be independent of the anisotropy parameter $0 < \eps <1$, and this for fixed coarse Cartesian grids and for variable anisotropy directions. The context of this work are magnetically confined fusion plasmas.

math.NA↗

arXiv2011

Numerical study of a nonlinear heat equation for plasma physics

This paper is devoted to the numerical approximation of a nonlinear temperature balance equation, which describes the heat evolution of a magnetically confined plasma in the edge region of a tokamak. The nonlinearity implies some numerical difficulties, in particular long time behavior, when solved with standard methods. An efficient numerical scheme is presented in this paper, based on a combination of a directional splitting scheme and the IMEX scheme introduced in [Filbet and Jin]

math.NA↗

arXiv2011

An Asymptotic-Preserving method for highly anisotropic elliptic equations based on a micro-macro decomposition

The concern of the present work is the introduction of a very efficient Asymptotic Preserving scheme for the resolution of highly anisotropic diffusion equations. The characteristic features of this scheme are the uniform convergence with respect to the anisotropy parameter $0<\eps <<1$, the applicability (on cartesian grids) to cases of non-uniform and non-aligned anisotropy fields $b$ and the simple extension to the case of a non-constant anisotropy intensity $1/\eps$. The mathematical approach and the numerical scheme are different from those presented in the previous work [Degond et al. (2010), arXiv:1008.3405v1] and its considerable advantages are pointed out.

math.NA↗

arXiv2010

Duality-based Asymptotic-Preserving method for highly anisotropic diffusion equations

The present paper introduces an efficient and accurate numerical scheme for the solution of a highly anisotropic elliptic equation, the anisotropy direction being given by a variable vector field. This scheme is based on an asymptotic preserving reformulation of the original system, permitting an accurate resolution independently of the anisotropy strength and without the need of a mesh adapted to this anisotropy. The counterpart of this original procedure is the larger system size, enlarged by adding auxiliary variables and Lagrange multipliers. This Asymptotic-Preserving method generalizes the method investigated in a previous paper [arXiv:0903.4984v2] to the case of an arbitrary anisotropy direction field.

math.NA↗