Full electromagnetic Vlasov code simulation of the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability

Recent advancement in numerical techniques for Vlasov simulations and their application to cross-scale coupling in the plasma universe are discussed. Magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations are now widely used for numerical modeling of global and macroscopic phenomena. In the framework of the MHD approximation, however, diffusion coefficients such as resistivity and adiabatic index are given from empirical models. Thus there are recent attempts to understand first-principle kinetic processes in macroscopic phenomena, such as magnetic reconnection and the Kelvin-Helmholtz (KH) instability via full kinetic particle-in-cell and Vlasov codes. In the present study, a benchmark test for a new four-dimensional full electromagnetic Vlasov code is performed. First, the computational speed of the Vlasov code is measured and a linear performance scaling is obtained on a massively parallel supercomputer with more than 12 000 cores. Second, a first-principle Vlasov simulation of the KH instability is performed in order to evaluate current status of numerical techniques for Vlasov simulations. The KH instability is usually adopted as a benchmark test problem for guiding-center Vlasov codes, in which a cyclotron motion of charged particles is neglected. There is not any full electromagnetic Vlasov simulation of the KH instability; this is because it is difficult to follow (E) over right arrow x (B) over right arrow drift motion accurately without approximations. The present first-principle Vlasov simulation has successfully represented the formation of KH vortices and its secondary instability. These results suggest that Vlasov code simulations would be a powerful approach for studies of cross-scale coupling on future Peta-scale supercomputers. (C) 2010 American Institute of Physics. [doi: 10.1063/1.3422547]