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J. TenBarge

Publications and source records attributed to J. TenBarge.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

Major Scientific Challenges and Opportunities in Understanding Magnetic Reconnection and Related Explosive Phenomena in Solar and Heliospheric Plasmas

Magnetic reconnection underlies many explosive phenomena in the heliosphere and in laboratory plasmas. The new research capabilities in theory/simulations, observations, and laboratory experiments provide the opportunity to solve the grand scientific challenges summarized in this whitepaper. Success will require enhanced and sustained investments from relevant funding agencies, increased interagency/international partnerships, and close collaborations of the solar, heliospheric, and laboratory plasma communities. These investments will deliver transformative progress in understanding magnetic reconnection and related explosive phenomena including space weather events.

physics.space-ph

Discontinuous Galerkin algorithms for fully kinetic plasmas

We present a new algorithm for the discretization of the Vlasov-Maxwell system of equations for the study of plasmas in the kinetic regime. Using the discontinuous Galerkin finite element method for the spatial discretization, we obtain a high order accurate solution for the plasma's distribution function. Time stepping for the distribution function is done explicitly with a third order strong-stability preserving Runge-Kutta method. Since the Vlasov equation in the Vlasov-Maxwell system is a high dimensional transport equation, up to six dimensions plus time, we take special care to note various features we have implemented to reduce the cost while maintaining the integrity of the solution, including the use of a reduced high-order basis set. A series of benchmarks, from simple wave and shock calculations, to a five dimensional turbulence simulation, are presented to verify the efficacy of our set of numerical methods, as well as demonstrate the power of the implemented features.

physics.plasm-ph