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I have been writing some code in C for particle-in-cell simulation. One of the steps of the PIC algorithm requires to solve (numerically) Poisson's equation

$$ \Delta \varphi = - 4 \pi \rho. $$

Initially I want to limit the program to 2d case ( instead of 3d ) and use the finite difference method ( instead of finite elements ).

Much to my surprise, I was not able to find any free open source C library for this task ( i.e. to solve 2d Poisson's equation using the finite difference method ). The only thing I've found is a FISHPACK - collection of FORTRAN77 routines, part of a famous SLATEC library.

I'm fine with fortran, but a call to a fortran routine from C requires some unnecessary array transformations and "native" C solution seems more convenient. Another reason I hesitate to use FISHPACK is that it uses single precision floats with implicit type declaration. Using the gcc '-fdefault-real-8' flag I was able to convert it to double precision, but I'm not sure whether or not everything still works correctly after this.

So, my question is: are there any free ( as in freedom ) C/C++ libraries to solve 2d Poisson equation using the finite difference method? And since I do intend to switch to 3d and finite elements, advices on C library for this purpose are also welcome.

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  • $\begingroup$ It looks like you want to solve for the gravity potential. This typically involves solving in all of ${\mathbb R}^3$, which presents a significant complication of your task. Is this so? $\endgroup$
    – Wolfgang Bangerth
    Mar 22, 2014 at 19:16
  • $\begingroup$ No, I want to do a plasma simulation where electromagnetic interaction is a primary force and gravity is typically neglected. The simulation domain is finite, not the whole ${\mathbb R}^3$. Besides, I want to start from 2D domain and later switch to 3D. $\endgroup$
    – JustWritingMyName
    Mar 23, 2014 at 8:02
  • $\begingroup$ Is uniform orthogonal grid sufficient for you? In that case I am preparing to release such a library. Which is a single purpose thing that could be used instead of FISHPACK for people that do not want to use large frameworks. Fortran 2008 with C bindings... $\endgroup$
    – Vladimir F Героям слава
    Mar 24, 2014 at 11:44
  • $\begingroup$ Yes, uniform orthogonal grid is currently sufficient. Please, do post a link here when you make a release. $\endgroup$
    – JustWritingMyName
    Mar 29, 2014 at 16:36
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    $\begingroup$ PoisFFT by @VladimirF. $\endgroup$
    – crayzeewulf
    Aug 18, 2015 at 21:08

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2-D Poisson by finite differences looks to be a few examples in PETSc (KSP: ex29, ex32, ex50). I'd probably use a nonlinear solver (SNES) or time-stepper (TS) in PETSc anyway for the added flexibility. 2-D Poisson via finite differences is probably an example in other packages (for instance, probably Trilinos). I know it's an example given in Using MPI.

There are many free C/C++ libraries to solve Poisson via finite elements. You could try PETSc again, deal.II, DUNE, FEniCS, any other library in this list on Wikipedia, or (probably) Trilinos. Using a library like deal.II or FEniCS, it looks to be relatively easy to change the dimensionality of a code (i.e., go from 2-D to 3-D), so you might consider writing a 2-D finite element code to start, and then converting it to 3-D.

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  • $\begingroup$ Yes, deal.II (dealii.org) has several examples solving the Poisson equation in 2d, 3d, with uniform or adaptive meshes, and also on a few 10,000 processors if you need to. $\endgroup$
    – Wolfgang Bangerth
    Mar 22, 2014 at 19:15
  • $\begingroup$ Thanks for the references to the examples. I'll take a closer look at PETSc. $\endgroup$
    – JustWritingMyName
    Mar 23, 2014 at 7:53

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