Darwin-Vlasov simulations of magnetised plasmas

We present a new Vlasov code for collisionless plasmas in the nonrelativistic regime. A Darwin approximation is used for suppressing electromagnetic vacuum modes. The spatial integration is based on an extension of the flux-conservative scheme, introduced by Filbet et al. [F. Filbet, E. Sonnendrücker, P. Bertrand, Conservative numerical schemes for the Vlasov equation, J. Comput. Phys. 172 (2001) 166]. Performance and accuracy is demonstrated by comparing it to a standard finite differences scheme for two test cases, including a Harris sheet magnetic reconnection scenario. This comparison suggests that the presented scheme is a promising alternative to finite difference schemes. 2005 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. PACS: 02.70. c; 52.25.Dg; 52.65.Ff; 52.25.Xz; 52.35.Vd