Theoretical and Computational Study of Collisional Plasmas(2/3)

The major goal of the project is to study the effects of particle discreteness and theadditional Monte Carlo collisions on the numerical thermalization of plasmas in theparticle-in-cell simulation. The complementary theoretical analysis will be performedto derive the scaling law of the thermalization time with the numerical parameters ofinterest. Following these works, we will develop a low-noise particle-in cell code forstudying collisional plasma systems. The simulation code will then be used toexamine the analytical form of the absorption rate of the laser energy in the plasma.The verified absorption rate can be applied in the fluid model, which considering thetheoretical models of multi-photon ionization, collisional ionization and the radiationinduced by line emission etc., for studying the physical mechanisms under differenttime scale in the interactions between the intense laser and high density plasmas.Therefore, we will focus on two major research topics: the numerical noise andparticle collisions in particle-in-cell simulation and the dynamic behaviors of theradiative high-density high-temperature plasmas. The integrated numerical modelsdeveloped in the project can be applied on the study of laser-produced plasma extremeultraviolet light sources, laser plasma proton accelerators and the formation oflaser-produced plasma channel etc.