Session

DescriptionThe most comprehensive description of plasma phenomena involves kinetic theory, with applications in different fields, such as magnetic or inertial fusion, industrial plasmas and astrophysics. Solving kinetic problems requires overcoming multiple challenges: the high dimension of phase space (6D), time and spatial scales spanning several orders of magnitude, various non-linearities and the need to solve the combined system of Vlasov/Fokker-Planck equations consistently with Maxwell equations. Reduced models have been devised tailored for a particular application: for example gyrokinetic theory for turbulent transport, or hybrid fluid/kinetic models for fast particle effects on MHD modes. Nevertheless, the resulting equations remain numerically very challenging and, with the aim of carrying out ever more realistic simulations, require running on the most powerful computers available at any time. To make efficient use of these HPC resources, and to maintain readiness for future developments, efforts are being pursued at multiple levels: Refactoring and porting legacy codes on new and emerging architectures; Improving code design for facilitating future portability and further implementation of physics models of increased complexity; Developing improved algorithms as well as innovative numerical approaches running efficiently on future HPC platforms.