Kinetic study of shock formation in colliding plasma jets

Understanding shock formation in colliding plasma jets is crucial for many plasma applications, e.g., inertial confinement fusion (ICF). Here, we use the fully kinetic Vlasov model in the Gkeyll simulation framework (https://gkeyll.readthedocs.io) to study the effects of collisional models (Fokker-Planck operator and some of its simplifications) and the degrees of freedom in the velocity space. These approaches have various levels of precision but also computational cost. Therefore, it is essential to choose the right tool for the task and improve its numerical implementation using novel algorithmic approaches. We will show a comparison of these models and details of their implementation to investigate shocked versus shock-mitigated regimes for the colliding jets.

All this is done in a parameter space that allows comparison with the Plasma Liner Experiment (PLX) in Los Alamos.