Applications
Within plasma physics, PIC simulation has been used successfully to study laser-plasma interactions, electron acceleration and ion heating in the auroral ionosphere, magnetohydrodynamics, magnetic reconnection, as well as ion-temperature-gradient and other microinstabilities in tokamaks, furthermore vacuum discharges, and dusty plasmas.
Hybrid models may use the PIC method for the kinetic treatment of some species, while other species (that are Maxwellian) are simulated with a fluid model.
PIC simulations have also been applied outside of plasma physics to problems in solid and fluid mechanics.
Read more about this topic: Particle-in-cell