An analysis of the hybrid finite-difference time-domain scheme for modeling the propagation of electromagnetic waves in cold magnetized toroidal plasma

To explore the behavior of electromagnetic waves in cold magnetized plasma, a three-dimensional cylindrical hybrid finite-difference time-domain model is developed. The full discrete dispersion relation is derived and compared with the exact solutions. We establish an analytical proof of stability in the case of nonmagnetized plasma. We demonstrate that in the case of nonmagnetized cold plasma the maximum stable Courant number of the hybrid method coincides with the vacuum Courant condition. In the case of magnetized plasma the stability of the applied numerical scheme is investigated by numerical simulation. In order to determine the utility of the applied difference scheme we complete the analysis of the numerical method demonstrating the limit of the reliability of the numerical results. (paper)