VlaPy: A Python package for Eulerian Vlasov-Poisson-Fokker-Planck Simulations

Abstract

Here we introduce VlaPy: a one-spatial-dimension, one-velocity-dimension (1D-1V), Eulerian Vlasov-Poisson-Fokker-Planck (VPFP) simulation code written in Python. The Vlasov-Poisson-Fokker-Planck system of equations is commonly used to study plasma and fluid physics in a broad set of topical environments, ranging from space physics, to laboratorycreated plasmas for fusion applications (Betti & Hurricane, 2016; Chen, Klein, & Howes, 2019; Fasoli et al., 2016; Ongena, Koch, Wolf, & Zohm, 2016). More specifically, the Vlasov-Poisson system of equations is typically employed to model collisionless plasmas. The Fokker-Planck operator can be introduced into this system to represent the effect of collisions. The primary advantage of this scheme is that instead of relying on numerical diffusion to smooth smallscale structures that arise when modeling collisionless plasmas, the Fokker-Planck operator enables a physics-based smoothing mechanism.