Efficient spectral and pseudospectral algorithms for 3D simulations of whistler-mode waves in a plasma

Efficient spectral and pseudospectral algorithms for simulation of linear and nonlinear 3D whistler waves in a cold electron plasma are developed. These algorithms are applied to the simulation of whistler waves generated by loop antennas and spheromak-like stationary waves of considerable amplitude. The algorithms are linearly stable and show good stability properties for computations of nonlinear waves over tens of thousands of time steps. Additional speedups by factors of 10–20 (comparing single core CPU and one GPU) are achieved by using graphics processors (GPUs), which enable efficient numerical simulation of the wave propagation on relatively high resolution meshes (tens of millions nodes) in personal computing environment. Comparisons of the numerical results with analytical solutions and experiments show good agreement. The limitations of the codes and the performance of the GPU computing are discussed.