Development of a Collisionless Plasma Kinetic Solver and an Investigation of One-Dimensional Plasma Waves and Instabilities

Thesis (Master's)--University of Washington, 2018Several classic problems in collisionless plasma kinetics are treated by solving the one-dimensional multi-species Vlasov-Poisson system with a BGK collision operator. Calculations are done using a second order discontinuous Galerkin algorithm on a high resolution structured 1D1V grid, with speed and efficiency enabled by GPU parallelization. The numerical method and programming implementation are explained in detail with the intention of replication by interested parties. Elements of collisionless kinetic plasma theory are presented such as linearized Landau damping theory, electrostatic stability, mechanical resonance in a system with mean field interaction, and the phase mixing principle. Subjects of simulation and analysis include: linear and nonlinear Landau damping of electron plasma waves, plasma streaming instabilities, ion interaction with electron holes, and collisional interaction with Landau damping. General takeaways of electrostatic plasma instability are explored such as the ideas of collisionless heating and current drive