Particle loading for a plasma shear layer in a magnetic field (Q1261356)

Some new particle loading methods have been developed for use in simulating a plasma shear layer with nonuniform density and temperature in the presence of a magnetic field, especially with a large effective ion gyroradius. The numerical approach to the shear instability with strong velocity shear consists in starting a simulation from a state of equilibrium, perturbing this equilibrium in some way, then observing the linear growth of the perturbation and its ultimate saturation. With the method here presented, we simulate a shear layer in a state close to equilibrium without having to solve the Vlasov-Boltzmann equation.