Numerical solution technique for multitemperature plasma hydrodynamics

We describe a numerical technique for the solution of the equations of multitemperature plasma hydrodynamics in a finite-difference formulation. A key feature of the algorithm is that it is locally mass, momentum, and energy conservative, and therefore is particularly useful for problems which require an accurate description of each of the constituent fluids in the presence of shock waves. We present explicit formulae for solving the equations for a simple two-temperature plasma, and discuss the extension of the algorithm to more complex multitemperature plasma models. We also summarize some results from a two-temperature laser-matter interaction simulation as an illustration of the performane of the algorithm