Researchers find way to improve simulations of neutrinos and astrophysical plasma dynamics

November 13, 2017
Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe (Kavli IPMU)

A research team including Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe (Kavli IPMU) Principal Investigator Naoki Yoshida have found a way to improve computer simulations that recreate the movement of neutrinos and astrophysical plasma.
 

The Vlasov–Poisson equation has played a significant role in simulating how particles move in the Universe, but it also uses a large amount of memory space in computer simulations. Hence, it had been assumed that using Vlasov–Poisson equation in 3D simulations was impossible.
 

A study lead by the Satoshi Tanaka and Kohji Yoshikawa at the Center for Computational Sciences at the University of Tsukuba, and including Takashi Minoshima at the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology and Kavli IPMU’s Yoshida, managed to develop a solution that allows Vlasov–Poisson equations to be used in computer simulations using a fraction of the usual memory space.
 

Details of their findings were published in the November 10 issue of the Astrophysical Journal.


Paper details
Journal: Astrophysical Journal
Title: Multidimensional Vlasov–Poisson Simulations with High-order Monotonicity- and Positivity-preserving Schemes
Authors: Satoshi Tanaka (1), Kohji Yoshikawa (1), Takashi Minoshima (2), Naoki Yoshida (3,4)
Author affiliations:
1. Center for Computational Sciences, University of Tsukuba
2. Department of Mathematical Science and Advanced Technology, Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology
3. Department of Physics, The University of Tokyo
4 Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe, The University of Tokyo

DOI:10.3847/1538-4357/aa901f
Paper abstract (Astrophysical Journal)
http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/aa901f
Preprint (arXiv.org)
https://arxiv.org/abs/1702.08521