LBNL, Berkeley, California
LLNL, Livermore, California
It was shown recently that it may be computationally advantageous to perform computer simulations in a Lorentz boosted frame for a certain class of particle acceleration devices or problems such as: free electron laser, laser-plasma accelerator, and particle beams interacting with electron clouds*. However, even if the computer model relies on a covariant set of equations, it was pointed out that algorithmic difficulties related to discretization errors may have to be overcome in order to take full advantage of the potential speedup**. Further complications arise from the need to transform input and output data between the laboratory frame and the frame of calculation, but can be overcome at low additional computational cost***. We will present the theory behind the speed-up of numerical simulation in a boosted frame, our latest developments of numerical methods, and examples of application to the modeling of the above-cited problems and others if applicable.
