The CCPP Network in Computational Plasma Physics
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Warwick
Department Name: Physics
Abstract
CCPP is the Collaborative Computational Project for Plasma Physics. It is a network of 30 UK researchers that came into existence in late 2007. It serves to develop, maintain and distribute world-leading codes for plasma physics simulations in laboratory plasma physics, including laser plasmas and fusion studies, space science and astrophysics. These codes cover the whole spectrum of plasma models from fluid treatments on astrophysical scales to fully kinetic relativistic simulations of femtosecond laser pulses. The network plans to establish a major repository of plasma physics software for the UK community and to encourage collaboration and component exchange and reuse in these developments. As these codes develop the network will also co-ordinate training for existing and new users of these codes, especially PhD students, through workshops and meetings. In all its software developments CCPP will encourage the use of and disseminate through taught courses and workshops, best practice in the use of software tools and visualization software.Since being set up CCPP has concentrated on defining common projects of UK wide benefit. Two full meetings of the CCPP members have defined the principal UK computational plasma physics needs for the immediate future. This has lead to several working groups who are looking at different areas of the CCPP remit. These include the development of a UK core kinetic code, based on the particle in cell (PIC) technique, which can be used as a common building block for advanced extensions. This core code is now released in 1D, 2D and 3D versions through CCPForge (http://ccpforge.cse.rl.ac.uk/projects/epoch/) and is called EPOCH (Extendible Open PIC Collaboration). One group is looking at developing a strategy for using adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) to alleviate the memory requirements of direct Vlasov solvers which need between 4 and 6 dimensions plus time depending on the physics problem. Another group (extended hydro models) aims to develop new algorithms for including non fluid effects into a fluid framework to allow advanced simulations in laser plasma interactions and astrophysics over long scale lengths and timescales. A final group aims to extend the UK computational capability for simulating the turbulence responsible for anomalous transport in magnetically confined fusion experiments. These codes need to solve the gyro-kinetic plasma equations in full toroidal geometry. The activity since forming the CCPP has therefore concentrated on advanced PIC, AMR Vlasov, extended hydro and gyro-kinetic codes. Of these the advanced PIC, through the EPOCH release, is the most developed and has immediate applications across the widest range of plasma physics. The track records of the principal group leaders for each of these projects are below although all 30 CCPP members are involved in at least one of the projects.
Organisations
Publications
Arber T
(2015)
Contemporary particle-in-cell approach to laser-plasma modelling
in Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion
Bennett, K
(2013)
EPOCH manual
Brady C
(2013)
Gamma-ray emission in near critical density plasmas
in Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion
Brady CS
(2012)
Laser absorption in relativistically underdense plasmas by synchrotron radiation.
in Physical review letters
Dudson B
(2014)
BOUT++: Recent and current developments
in Journal of Plasma Physics
Ridgers C
(2013)
Dense electron-positron plasmas and bursts of gamma-rays from laser-generated quantum electrodynamic plasmas
in Physics of Plasmas
Ridgers C
(2014)
Modelling gamma-ray photon emission and pair production in high-intensity laser-matter interactions
in Journal of Computational Physics
Ridgers CP
(2012)
Dense electron-positron plasmas and ultraintense ? rays from laser-irradiated solids.
in Physical review letters
Taylor S
(2014)
Effects of perturbations and radial profiles on ignition of inertial confinement fusion hotspots
in Physics of Plasmas
Weikum M
(2016)
Generation of attosecond electron bunches in a laser-plasma accelerator using a plasma density upramp
in Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment
Description | This was a networking grant aimed at fostering collaboration between research groups, training of students in computational plasma physics and instructing researchers on the use of community codes. The project therefore did not have any findings. Instead it identified possible core research interests in the UK in plasma physics, shared expertise between groups and helped train a cohort of PhD students and PDRAs |
Exploitation Route | The collaborations on key UK plasma codes and training from this award have lead to several new software projects in fusion plasmas. The CCP network has continued funding from EPSRC and this runs until 2020. All new key findings and outcomes are filed against this newer award. |
Sectors | Education Energy Security and Diplomacy |
URL | http://www.ccpp.ac.uk/home/index.html |
Description | A radiation-hydrodynamic ALE code for laser fusion energy |
Amount | £255,109 (GBP) |
Funding ID | EP/I029117/1 |
Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 09/2011 |
End | 09/2013 |
Description | CCP Flagship Project |
Amount | £380,448 (GBP) |
Funding ID | EP/M011534/1 |
Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 03/2015 |
End | 03/2018 |
Description | Centre for Computational Plasma Physics |
Amount | £264,129 (GBP) |
Organisation | Atomic Weapons Establishment |
Sector | Private |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 09/2017 |
End | 09/2022 |
Description | Multi-scale simulations of intense laser-plasma interactions |
Amount | £439,082 (GBP) |
Funding ID | EP/G054940/1 |
Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 01/2010 |
End | 03/2014 |
Description | ODIN |
Amount | £255,110 (GBP) |
Funding ID | EP/I029117/1 |
Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 09/2011 |
End | 09/2013 |
Description | Plasma Physics HEC Consortia |
Amount | £279,000 (GBP) |
Funding ID | EP/L000237/1 |
Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 04/2013 |
End | 05/2018 |
Title | Odin |
Description | Odin is a 2D r-z geometry multi-material MHD ALE code. This is maintained on a private gitlab server along with detailed documentation. |
Type Of Technology | Software |
Year Produced | 2017 |
Impact | This is the first full release of the Odin code but is currently restricted to the development team only. This includes researchers at Exeter, Warwick, Imperial College and York. This release is the first full Odin release which is able to complete simulations of pellet implosion for inertial confinement fusion (ICF). It includes MHD, conduction and a generalised Ohm's law. The ability to begin ICF simulations, albeit with an early release version of the Odin code, is essential for keeping the UK academic community actively involved in international ICF programmes. |
URL | https://cfsa-pmw.warwick.ac.uk/Odin/Odin |
Title | Release of EPOCH code |
Description | Release of the EPOCH particle-in-cell code as a publicly available software package. EPOCH has been developed primarily at the University of Warwick as a multi-purpose plasma simulation code. QED algorithms and code to model gamma-ray and electron-positron pair production were developed at Oxford. Warwick implemented the QED package in the publicly released version of EPOCH. The fully documented code is available at https://cfsa-pmw.warwick.ac.uk/EPOCH/epoch. It is being used by experimentalists and theorists from many countries. This initial release of EPOCH was in 2011 but this is continually updated. |
Type Of Technology | Software |
Year Produced | 2016 |
Open Source License? | Yes |
Impact | The UK is now recognised as a world leading centre for kinetic plasma simulations for laser-plasmas |
URL | https://cfsa-pmw.warwick.ac.uk/EPOCH/epoch |