A conservative high order semi-Lagrangian WENO method for the Vlasov equation (Q846541)

A novel Vlasov solver is proposed, based on a semi-Lagrangian method which combines strang splitting in time with high order WENO (weighted essentially non-oscillatory) reconstruction in space. The key point is that the interpolation matrices -- used in the reconstruction process of a semi-Lagrangian approach to linear hyperbolic equations -- can be factored into right and left flux matrices. This makes it posible to apply WENO methodology. The spatial WENO reconstruction developed here is conservative and updates point values of the solution. Here the scheme is shown to work in the 3rd, 5th, 7th and 9th order, but it can be extended to arbitrary high order. The quality of this method is demonstrated in application to basic test problems, as linear advection, rigid body rotation, Landau damping and two-stream instability. Even though the method is only second-order accurate in time, the numerical results suggest the use of high order reconstruction is advantageous when considering the Vlasov-Poisson systems.