Particle in Cell Finite Element Validation and Verification Methods

Particle in cell codes are used extensively to understand plasma physics and to design devices that exploit these physics. More recent needs (say novel table top accelerators) have given impetus to development of the next generation plasma physics codes that have better fidelity. But despite this need, it is difficult to validate any code. For fully three dimensional simulations, there are no analytical solutions. One typically reduces the problem to the simplest 1-D problem and draw conclusions. Furthermore, the literature is sparse with respect to detail so as to be reproducible. This paper seeks present a set of problems (with multiple points of comparison) that can serve as a benchmark for all PIC codes.