Simulation of Topological Gaseous Plasmon Polaritons at the Large Plasma Device

We simulate the propagation of electromagnetic waves in a magnetized plasma to guide and interpret experiments conducted at the Large Plasma Device (LAPD) using the open-source Dedalus pseudo-spectral solver. The eigenfrequency spectrum reveals the gaseous plasma polariton (GPP) mode that was predicted to have a topological origin. Waves generated at a source antenna propagate unidirectionally in simulations of the plasma dynamics. The large separation of time scales between the slow (millisecond) evolution of the plasma electron density and the high (gigahertz) frequency of the waves is handled by simulating the waves during separate time slices at different densities. To test model predictions against experiment, we compare the simulations to measurements carried out at LAPD.