Geometric Computational Electrodynamics with Variational Integrators and Discrete Differential Forms

Abstract

In this paper, we develop a structure-preserving discretization of the Lagrangian framework for electromagnetism, combining techniques from variational integrators and discrete differential forms. This leads to a general family of variational, multisymplectic numerical methods for solving Maxwell's equations that automatically preserve key symmetries and invariants. In doing so, we demonstrate several new results, which apply both to some well-established numerical methods and to new methods introduced here. First, we show that Yee's finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) scheme, along with a number of related methods, are multisymplectic and derive from a discrete Lagrangian variational principle. Second, we generalize the Yee scheme to unstructured meshes, not just in space but in 4-dimensional spacetime. This relaxes the need to take uniform time steps, or even to have a preferred time coordinate at all. Finally, as an example of the type of methods that can be developed within this general framework, we introduce a new asynchronous variational integrator (AVI) for solving Maxwell's equations. These results are illustrated with some prototype simulations that show excellent energy and conservation behavior and lack of spurious modes, even for an irregular mesh with asynchronous time stepping.

37 pages, 12 figures. v3: broadly revised, including incorporation of free source terms, new numerical experiments and figures

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• Explicit Time Mimetic Discretiztions Of Wave Equations
• Variational Principles for Hamiltonian Systems
• Action principle for Coulomb collisions in plasmas
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• Computation of Maxwell's equations on manifold using implicit DEC scheme