Deterministic verification for electrostatic particle-in-cell algorithms using the method of manufactured solutions.

As simulations of kinetic plasmas continue to increase in scope and complexity, a rigorous and straightforward method for verifying particle-in-cell implementations is necessary to ensure their correctness. In this talk we present a deterministic method for the rigorous verification of multidimensional, multispecies electrostatic particle-in-cell codes based on the method of manufactured solutions. We show that rigorous verification is possible through the exclusive examination of errors of grid quantities, allowing for a very light-weight and non-intrusive implementation in existing particle-in-cell codes. We further show that different grid quantities feature different rates of convergence with the number of particles, as well as numerical results of a 2D-2V multi-species particle-in-cell code which confirm our theoretical claims. Additionally, we report on ongoing work extending the method to electromagnetic and gyrokinetic systems.