Two species continuum kinetic simulation of electrostatic plasma instabilities

Several classic problems in collisionless plasma kinetics are treated by solving the one-dimensional multi-species Vlasov-Poisson system. Calculations are done using a second order discontinuous Galerkin algorithm on a high resolution structured 1D1V grid with speed and efficiency enabled by GPU parallelization. Subjects of simulation and analysis include: Landau damping and excitation of single and multi-species plasma waves, evolution of 1D plasma wave turbulence, ion interaction with electron holes, plasma streaming instabilities, collisional interaction with Landau damping, and plasma sheath kinetic effects. Some results of interest entail wave-trapped particle mixing in 1D wave turbulence and ion acoustic wave excitation by electron streaming instability. Discussion is in terms of spectral analysis and collisionless kinetic theory through the paradigms of linearized Landau damping theory, electrostatic stability, mechanical resonance in a system with mean field interaction, and the phase mixing principle. General takeaways of electrostatic plasma instability are explored such as the ideas of collisionless heating, current drive, and anomalous heat fluxes.