An explicit symplectic integration scheme for plasma simulations (Q1261358)

An explicit symplectic integration scheme which describes the selfconsistent wave particle interaction is developed. The integrator does not split the Hamiltonian trivially into a kinetic and potential part. The integrator yields accurate growth rates for the gentle-bump instability even when the timestep is of the order of the inverse plasma frequency. This represents up to a tenfold reduction in computation compared to conventional schemes.