Speaker
Description
Particle-in-cell (PIC) simulation is an important tool to study collective behavior of charged particles in space. At start of the simulation, it is necessary to initialize particle velocities, by using random variables. The distribution of particle velocities may vary from problem to problem. We may want to use a Maxwell distribution in many cases, a kappa distribution for heliospheric problems, a loss-cone distribution for inner-magnetospheric problems, and a Maxwell-Juttner distribution for relativistic problems. Meanwhile, it is not always clear how to prepare these distributions by using random variables. In this presentation, we will review Monte-Carlo methods for generating several velocity distributions in PIC simulation. Utilizing gamma-distributed random variables, we have successfully constructed Monte-Carlo algorithms for various distributions [1,2].
- S. Zenitani & S. Nakano, Phys. Plasmas 29, 113904 (2022)
- S. Zenitani & S. Nakano, J. Geophys. Res. 128, e2023JA031983 (2023)
