JE20: Vlasov equation on bounded domain
In many practical problems of interest the Vlasov equation needs to be solved on a domain bounded by walls. In this document I describe the boundary conditions for such bounded domain simulations and present some example calculations the case of free-streaming particles, with specified electric potential and for a simple plasma sheath. For periodic domain calculations, see JE14 and JE15.
Free-streaming
Consider the Vlasov equation with zero potential (free streaming of particles)
on
for
The total number of particles in the domain,
Here the first integral accounts for the particles flowing out of the right wall, and the second the particles flowing out of the left wall.
To test the boundary conditions a simulation was run on
with

Total number of particles in domain computed by Gkeyll (black line) compared to the exact solution (red dots) as a function of time. The walls in this simulation are assumed to be perfectly absorbing. See [s254] for details.