Springer The Hybrid Multiscale Simulation Technology: An Introduction with Application to Astrophysical and Laboratory Plasmas (Scientific Computation)

A comprehensive description of hybrid plasma simulation models providing a very useful summary and guide to the vast literature on this topic. Review From the reviews: "This book provides a very useful guide for researchers as well as graduate students in the field of plasma numerical modelization, primarily by hybrid methods that treat some aspects of the plasma dynamics kinematically and some others as fluids. The vast literature on the subject is summarized in a way that can rapidly be exploited by computer knowledgeable persons and a few exercises are proposed that can be used in courses in astrophysical plasmas." (Mathematical Reviews 2003g) "This book provides a very useful guide for researchers as well as graduate students in the field of plasma numerical modelization … . The vast literature on the subject is summarized in a way that can rapidly be exploited by computer knowledgeable persons and a few exercises are proposed that can be used in courses in astrophysical plasmas. … This book, which provides a useful guide to the literature, is somewhat specialized to the specific problems of space plasmas … ." (Thierry Passot, Mathematical Reviews, 2003 g) From the Back Cover This book is a comprehensive description of hybrid plasma simulation models and will provide a very useful summary and guide to the vast literature on this topic. It addresses researchers and graduate students knowledgeable about computational science and numerical analysis, and can be used in courses on astrophysical and space plasmas. It is also meant for plasma installation designers. The coupled Vlasov--Maxwell equations with collisions describing well the physical system are far too heavy for numerical siumulations. Hybrid models treat some aspects kinetically and some as fluids. In the first part the author discusses hybrid codes, which include a wide spectrum of description for ions, positrons, dust grains, atoms and electrons. In the second part he treats the applications to basic plasma phenomena like particle acceleration and dissipation processes as well as to the global interaction of the solar wind with nonmagnetic planets, comets, and the local interstellar medium.