Effects from switching on PIC simulations: Geospace Environmental Modeling (GEM) reconnection setup revisited

Abstract:

Electromagnetic Parcile-In-Cell (PIC) simulations are widely used to study plasma phenomena where kinetic scales are coupled to fluid scales. One of these phenomena is the evolution of magnetic reconnection. Switch-on effects have been described earlier for magneto-/hydrodynamic (MHD and HD) simulations, where oscillations are ignited by the initial condition and the usual instantaneous way of starting a simulation run. Here we revisit the GEM setup (a Harris current sheet) and demonstrate the immediate generation of oscillations propagating perpendicular to the magnetic shear layer (in B_z). Also we show how these oscillations do not dissipate quickly and will later be mode-converted to generate wave power, first in B_y, much later also in B_x (pointing along the shear direction). One needs to take care not to interpret these oscillations as physical wave modes associated with the nature of reconnection. We propose a method to prevent such switch-on effects from the beginning, that should be considered for implementation in other PIC simulation codes as well.