Asymptotic Preserving Discontinuous Galerkin Methods for a Linear Boltzmann Semiconductor Model

Abstract

A key property of the linear Boltzmann semiconductor model is that as the collision frequency tends to infinity, the phase space density $f = f(x,v,t)$ converges to an isotropic function $M(v)\rho(x,t)$, called the drift-diffusion limit, where $M$ is a Maxwellian and the physical density $\rho$ satisfies a second-order parabolic PDE known as the drift-diffusion equation. Numerical approximations that mirror this property are said to be asymptotic preserving. In this paper we build two discontinuous Galerkin methods to the semiconductor model: one with the standard upwinding flux and the other with a $\varepsilon$-scaled Lax-Friedrichs flux, where 1/$\varepsilon$ is the scale of the collision frequency. We show that these schemes are uniformly stable in $\varepsilon$ and are asymptotic preserving. In particular, we discuss what properties the discrete Maxwellian must satisfy in order for the schemes to converge in $\varepsilon$ to an accurate $h$-approximation of the drift diffusion limit. Discrete versions of the drift-diffusion equation and error estimates in several norms with respect to $\varepsilon$ and the spacial resolution are also included.