Interactive visualization of particle-in-cell simulations

The authors present a visualization system for interactive real time animation and visualization of simulation results from a parallel Particle-in-Cell code. The system was designed and implemented for the Onyx2 Infinite Reality hardware. A number of different visual objects, such as volume rendered particle density functionals were implemented. To provide sufficient frame rates for interactive visualization, the system was designed to provide performance close to the hardware specifications both in terms of the I/O and graphics subsystems. The presented case study applies the developed system to the evolution of an instability that gives rise to a plasma surfatron, a mechanism which rapidly can accelerate particles to very high velocities and thus be of great importance in the context of electron acceleration in astrophysical shocks, in the solar corona and in particle accelerators. The produced visualizations have allowed us to identify a previously unknown saturation mechanism for the surfatron and direct research efforts into new areas of interest.