A Vlasov–Fokker–Planck code for high energy density physics

OSHUN is a parallel relativistic 2D3P Vlasov–Fokker–Planck code, developed primarily to study electron transport and instabilities pertaining to laser-produced—including laser-fusion—plasmas. It incorporates a spherical harmonic expansion of the electron distribution function, where the number of terms is an input parameter that determines the angular resolution in momentum-space. The algorithm employs the full 3D electromagnetic fields and a rigorous linearized Fokker–Planck collision operator. The numerical scheme conserves energy and number density. This enables simulations for plasmas with temperatures from MeV down to a few eV and densities from less than critical to more than solid. Kinetic phenomena as well as electron transport physics can be recovered accurately and efficiently.