Simulations of plasma wakefield acceleration are challenging for many reasons, one of which is that the wave scale (about plasma skin depth) is much larger than the Debye length. Attempting to resolve both would make simulations prohibitively expensive. Therefore, grid steps far exceeding the Debye length are used, which compromises the accuracy of PIC simulations. While this inconsistency does not notably impact short-term processes spanning several wave periods, long-term simulations lead to clustering and unphysical heating of plasma electrons.
The latter undesirable effects can be avoided by slightly modifying the law of plasma particle motion, which is implemented in the newly developed 3d version of LCODE. The new feature enables much cleaner simulations of long-term wave evolution. In particular, when the numerical heating of plasma electrons is suppressed, the wake chaotization and premature transverse wavebreaking of a moderately nonlinear plasma wave disappear.

plasma,wakefield acceleration,simulation