Plasma Simulation Project

This project models plasma physics phenomena, focusing on the two-stream instability model. The core is built using a configurable class, PlasmaSimulation, optimized for visualizing plasma behavior and running simulations in a GUI.

Features

• Core Class: PlasmaSimulation
  This class simulates plasma interactions by calculating particle positions, velocities, electric fields, and tracking energy evolution. A GUI mode has been added for live visualization.

• GUI Mode
  The project includes a SimulationGUI to support real-time plotting, phase-space analysis, and energy evolution.

  • Phase Space Plot: Displays position vs. velocity.
  • Energy Plot: Shows kinetic, potential, and total energy over time.

Installation

Prerequisites

The code requires Python 3.x and several scientific libraries. It is recommended to use Anaconda or Miniconda to manage dependencies.

Setting Up a Conda Environment

To set up with Conda:

1. Create and activate a Conda environment:

   conda create -n plasma_sim python=3.x
   conda activate plasma_sim

2. Install required packages:

   conda install numpy scipy matplotlib

Cloning the Repository

Clone the repository to your local machine:

git clone <repository_url>
cd <repository_name>

Running the Code

The main simulation code is in twostream-optimized.py.

Basic Usage

1. Edit Configuration: Update the configuration parameters in the config dictionary within twostream-optimized.py to suit your simulation needs.
2. Run the Simulation:

   python twostream-optimized.py

GUI Mode

To use the GUI for live visualization, start twostream-optimized.py, and a GUI will open where you can interact with the simulation.

Configuration Parameters

The simulation allows several configurable parameters:

• NG, NT, N: grid points, timesteps, and particles count.
• dens, L, V0, VT, XP1: plasma density, grid length, stream velocities, thermal velocity, and position parameters.
• viz: a dictionary with visualization settings (e.g., marker size, transparency).

Example Configuration

config = {
    "NG": 64,
    "NT": 200,
    "N": 100,
    "dens": 1.0,
    "L": 10.0,
    "V0": 0.1,
    "VT": 0.05,
    "XP1": 0.5,
    "DT": 0.1,
    "viz": {
        "stream1_color": "firebrick",
        "stream2_color": "dodgerblue",
        "marker_size": 1.5,
        "alpha": 0.7,
        "phase_xlim": 10.0,
        "phase_ylim": 2.0
    }
}

Classes and Methods

PlasmaSimulation

Initialization:
PlasmaSimulation(config, gui_mode=False)

• config: Dictionary of simulation parameters.
• gui_mode: Enables real-time GUI updating if set to True.

Methods:

• run_simulation: Runs the simulation with live plot updates.
• stop_simulation: Stops the simulation.
• update: Advances simulation by one timestep.
• init_animation: Initializes animation with an empty plot.

License

This project is open-source and distributed under the MIT License.