Self-Consistent Hot Spot Tracing in Kinetic Simulations: A Method to Improve the Test Particles Method

ABSTRACT

One of the most important advantages of particle simulation as compared to fluid simulation is the capacity for working with and tracing particles. In particle simulations, the test particle method is usually used to get some idea of the behavior of plasma or other substances. In this method, first, a small number of particles are injected into the frame of fixed electromagnetic fields. Then, movement of particles is investigated using the pattern of their electric fields. This method is useful; however, as we need to work with fixed fields in our system, it lacks precision. In this work, we adapted the particle simulations method, adding the flexibility of working with dynamic fields that come directly from the simulation.

Here we have tried to investigate particle entry from the solar wind with northward Interpanetary Magnetic Filed (IMF) to the magnetospheric cusp. As our initial results shows, self consistent path of particles does not follow the magnetic field lines going to the cusp that is slightly in contrast to the conventional non self consistent results from test particle method.

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