LFU:online

Students should obtain a good understanding of the type of problems commonly encountered in plasma physics and how to efficiently solve them numerically.

This course covers the main models used to study plasma physics and their numerical treatment; in particular, those pertaining to nuclear containment fusion. We will consider both time independent solvers, such as those used to solve for equilibria, and time dependent solvers. In the latter category both fluid and kinetic problems are of interest in applications. Kinetic models, in particular, pose significant challenges as the corresponding dynamics takes place in an up to six-dimensional phase space. In this context we introducing particle methods and dynamical low-rank approximations as a way to reduce the complexity of high-dimensional hyperbolic partial differential equations. Since many such simulations are run on large scale supercomputers we will also consider some aspects of high-performance computing.

Assessment based on regular written and/or oral contributions from participants.