Diagnosing symplecticity in simulations of high-dimensional Hamiltonian systems

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Barham, William, Burby, J. W.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Barham, William
Burby, J. W.
author_facet Barham, William
Burby, J. W.
contents Integrals of the Liouville $1$-form, known as the first Poincaré integral invariant, provide a computable figure of merit for monitoring the conservation of symplecticity in the numerical integration of Hamiltonian systems. These integrals may be approximated with spectral convergence in the number of sample points, limited only by the regularity of the Hamiltonian. We devise a numerical integral invariant diagnostic for checking preservation of symplecticity in particle-in-cell (PIC) kinetic plasma simulation codes. As a first application of this diagnostic tool, we check the preservation of symplecticity in symplectic electrostatic particle-in-cell (PIC) methods. Surprisingly, such PIC methods fail to have symplectic time-advance maps if the charge is interpolated to the grid using linear shape functions, as is commonly done in practice. It is found that at least quadratic interpolation is needed for a structure-preserving PIC method to truly be symplectic.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2512_13951
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Diagnosing symplecticity in simulations of high-dimensional Hamiltonian systems
Barham, William
Burby, J. W.
Plasma Physics
Numerical Analysis
Integrals of the Liouville $1$-form, known as the first Poincaré integral invariant, provide a computable figure of merit for monitoring the conservation of symplecticity in the numerical integration of Hamiltonian systems. These integrals may be approximated with spectral convergence in the number of sample points, limited only by the regularity of the Hamiltonian. We devise a numerical integral invariant diagnostic for checking preservation of symplecticity in particle-in-cell (PIC) kinetic plasma simulation codes. As a first application of this diagnostic tool, we check the preservation of symplecticity in symplectic electrostatic particle-in-cell (PIC) methods. Surprisingly, such PIC methods fail to have symplectic time-advance maps if the charge is interpolated to the grid using linear shape functions, as is commonly done in practice. It is found that at least quadratic interpolation is needed for a structure-preserving PIC method to truly be symplectic.
title Diagnosing symplecticity in simulations of high-dimensional Hamiltonian systems
topic Plasma Physics
Numerical Analysis
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.13951