DEMOCRITUS: An adaptive particle in cell (PIC) code for object-plasma interactions

A new method for the simulation of plasma materials interactions is presented. The method is based on the particle in cell technique for the description of the plasma and on the immersed boundary method for the description of the interactions between materials and plasma particles. A technique to adapt the local number of particles and grid adaptation are used to reduce the truncation error and the noise of the simulations, to increase the accuracy per unit cost. In the present work, the computational method is verified against known results. Finally, the simulation method is applied to a number of specific examples of practical scientific and engineering interest.