N-body plasma simulation

The N-Body plasma simulation consists in calculating the Coulomb interaction between N charged particles. We adapted an N-Body 'tree code' algorithm, successfully used in the gravitational case, for the simulation of plasma. So far, we have found two main applications which suits this technique particularly well. First, the expansion of a plasma into vacuum. In this kind of simulations, densities of very different order of magnitude have to interact. Some areas can have an hydrodynamic behavior whereas some others are filled by energetic particles following ballistic trajectories. Problems which take into account plasma-vacuum interface are almost impossible to study with common simulation techniques ( Vlasov, Fokker-Planck). The other application consists in simulating moderately or strongly coupled plasma. It deals with many laboratory plasmas as well as astrophysical plasmas such as the convective zone of the sun. In coupled plasmas, close collisions between charges can not be neglected as it is done in most of the other simulation techniques. The N-Body technique allows the accurate description of the trajectory of each single particle and thus to take into account the strong deviations due to the close collisions. (author)