A Conservative Discontinuous Galerkin Algorithm for Particle Kinetics on Smooth Manifolds

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Johnson, Grant, Hakim, Ammar, Juno, James
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Johnson, Grant
Hakim, Ammar
Juno, James
author_facet Johnson, Grant
Hakim, Ammar
Juno, James
contents A novel, conservative discontinuous Galerkin algorithm is presented for particle kinetics on manifolds. The motion of particles on the manifold is represented using using both canonical and non-canonical Hamiltonian formulations. Our schemes apply to either formulations, but the canonical formulation results in a particularly efficient scheme that also conserves particle density and energy exactly. The collisionless update is coupled to a Bhatnagar-Gross-Krook (BGK) collision operator that provides a simplified model for relaxation to local thermodynamic equilibrium. An iterative scheme is constructed to ensure collisional invariants (density, momentum and energy) are preserved numerically. Rotation of the manifold is incorporated by modifying the Hamiltonian while ensuring a canonical formulation. Several test problems, including a kinetic version of the classical Sod-shock problem, Kelvin-Helmholtz instability on the surfaces of a sphere and a paraboloid, with and without rotations, is presented. A prospectus for further development of this approach to simulation of kinetic theory in general relativity is presented.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2512_05298
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle A Conservative Discontinuous Galerkin Algorithm for Particle Kinetics on Smooth Manifolds
Johnson, Grant
Hakim, Ammar
Juno, James
Computational Physics
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
Plasma Physics
A novel, conservative discontinuous Galerkin algorithm is presented for particle kinetics on manifolds. The motion of particles on the manifold is represented using using both canonical and non-canonical Hamiltonian formulations. Our schemes apply to either formulations, but the canonical formulation results in a particularly efficient scheme that also conserves particle density and energy exactly. The collisionless update is coupled to a Bhatnagar-Gross-Krook (BGK) collision operator that provides a simplified model for relaxation to local thermodynamic equilibrium. An iterative scheme is constructed to ensure collisional invariants (density, momentum and energy) are preserved numerically. Rotation of the manifold is incorporated by modifying the Hamiltonian while ensuring a canonical formulation. Several test problems, including a kinetic version of the classical Sod-shock problem, Kelvin-Helmholtz instability on the surfaces of a sphere and a paraboloid, with and without rotations, is presented. A prospectus for further development of this approach to simulation of kinetic theory in general relativity is presented.
title A Conservative Discontinuous Galerkin Algorithm for Particle Kinetics on Smooth Manifolds
topic Computational Physics
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
Plasma Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.05298