A 3-D Darwin-EM hybrid PIC code for ion ring studies (Q1360400)

A new, three-dimensional electromagnetic (EM), hybrid, particle-in-cell (PIC) code, FLAME has been constructed to study low-frequency, large orbit plasmas in realistic cylindrical configurations. In FLAME the EM-field is governed by Maxwell's equations in the quasi-neutral Darwin approximation (with displacement current neglected), the ion components are represented by discrete macro-particles, and the plasma electrons are modeled as a massless cold fluid. All physical quantities are expanded into finite Fourier series in the azimuthal direction. The discretization in the poloidal plane is done by a finite-difference staggered grid method. We present the results of normal mode tests to verify the code ability to correctly model plasma phenomena.