PIC Codes in New Processors: A Full Relativistic PIC Code in CUDA-Enabled Hardware With Direct Visualization

Kinetic plasma simulations using an electromagnetic particle-in-cell (PIC) algorithm have become the tool of choice for numerical modeling of several astrophysical and laboratory scenarios, ranging from astrophysical shocks and plasma shell collisions, to high-intensity laser-plasma interactions, with applications to fast ignition and particle acceleration. However, fully relativistic kinetic codes are computationally intensive, and new computing paradigms are required for one-to-one direct modeling of these scenarios. In this paper, we look at the use of modern graphics processing units for PIC algorithm calculations, discussing the implementation of a fully relativistic PIC code using NVIDIA´s Compute Unified Device Architecture, also allowing one for simultaneous visualization of simulation results with negligible impact on performance. Details on the algorithm implementation are given, focusing on grid-particle interpolation and current deposition and also on the direct visualization routines. Finally, we present results from a test simulation of an electron/positron plasma shell collision, focusing on code validation and performance evaluation.