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Weibel and two-stream instabilities

The goal of this tutorial is to run to physics simulations relating to streaming instabilities, and in particular to the electron Weibel and two-stream instabilities.

This tutorial will also allow you to:

  • get familiar with the happi.streak tool
  • extract instability growth rates
  • construct and extract phase-space distribution using the ParticleBinning diagnostics

Physical configuration

Download the two input files weibel_1d.py and two_stream_1d.py.

In both simulations, a plasma with density n_0 is initialized (n_0 = 1). This makes code units equal to plasma units, i.e. times are normalized to the inverse of the electron plasma frequency \omega_{p0} = \sqrt{e^2 n_0/(\epsilon_0 m_e)}, distances to the electron skin-depth c/\omega_{p0}, etc...

Ions are frozen during the whole simulation and just provide a neutralizing background. Two electron species are initialized with density n_0/2 and a mean velocity \pm \bf{v_0}.

Check input file and run the simulation

The first step is to check that your input files are correct. To do so, you will run (locally) :program:`Smilei` in test mode:

./smilei_test weibel_1d.py
./smilei_test two_stream_1d.py

If your simulation input files are correct, you can run the simulations.

Before going to the analysis, check your logs.

Weibel instability: analysis

In an :program:`ipython` terminal, open the simulation:

S = happi.Open('/path/to/your/simulation/weibel_1d')

The streak function of :program:`happi` can plot any 1D diagnostic as a function of time. Let's look at the time evolution of the total the current density J_z and the magnetic field B_y:

S.Field(0,'Jz'  ).streak(vsym=True)
S.Field(0,'By_m').streak(vsym=True)

Do you have any clue what is going on? You can get another view using an animation:

jz = S.Field(0,'Jz')
by = S.Field(0,'By_m',vmin=-0.5,vmax=0.5)
happi.multiSlide(jz,by)

Now, using the Scalar diagnostics, check the temporal evolution of the energies in the magnetic (B_y) and electrostatic (E_z) fields. Can you distinguish the linear and non-linear phase of the instability?

Have a closer look at the growth rates. Use the data_log=True options when loading your scalar diagnostics, then use happi.multiPlot() to plot both energies as a function of time. Can you extract the growth rates? What do they tell you?

If you have time, run the simulation for different wavenumbers k. Check the growth rate as a function of k.

For those interested, you will find more in: Grassi et al., Phys. Rev. E 95, 023203 (2017).

Two-stream instability: analysis

In an :program:`ipython` terminal, open the simulation:

S = happi.Open('/path/to/your/simulation/two_stream_1d')

then, have a first look at your simulation results:

uel = S.Scalar('Uelm',data_log=True,vmin=-9,vmax=-2)
ne  = S.Field(0,'-Rho_eon1-Rho_eon2', xmin=0, xmax=1.05, vmin=0, vmax=2)
ex  = S.Field(0,'Ex', xmin=0, xmax=1.05, vmin=-0.2, vmax=0.2)
phs = S.ParticleBinning(0,cmap="smilei_r",vmin=0,vmax=200)
happi.multiSlide(uel,ne,ex,phs,shape=[1,4])

Any clue what's going on?

Let's have a look at the energy in the electrostatic field E_x:

  • Can you distinguish the linear and non-linear phase of the instability?
  • Check the (x,p_x)-phase-space distribution (and energy in the electromagnetic fields), can you get any clue on what leads the instability to saturate?

Try changing the simulation box size (which is also the wavelength of the considered perturbation), e.g. taking: L_x = 0.69, 1.03 or 1.68 c/\omega_{p0}. What do you observe?

Now, take L_x = 0.6, 0.31 or 0.16 c/\omega_{p0}. What are the differences? Can you explain them?