Tracer Particles

Section author: Axel Huebl

Tracer particles are like probe particles, but interact self-consistenly with the simulation. They are usually used to visualize representative particle trajectories of a larger distribution.

Workflow

  • speciesDefinition.param: create a species specifically for tracer particles
    • add the particle attribute particleId to your species’ Particles< ... > class (third argument, T_Attributes)
    • optional: add fieldE and fieldB attributes to the species to store fields as in probes
  • create tracer particles by either
    • speciesInitialization.param: initializing a low percentage of your initial density inside this species or
    • speciesInitialization.param: assigning the target (electron) species of an ion’s ionization routine to the tracer species or
    • speciesInitialization.param: moving some particles of an already initialized species to the tracer species (upcoming)
  • fileOutput.param: output the tracer particles

Known Limitations

  • currently, only the electric field \(\vec E\) and the magnetic field \(\vec B\) can be recorded
  • we currently do not support time averaging