Numerical convergence of the branching time of negative streamers

Abstract

In sufficiently large gaps and electric fields, discharge streamers do branch. In [Arrayas et al., PRL 88, 174502 (2002)], we observed streamer branching numerically within a deterministic particle density model and explained it as a Laplacian instability of a thin space charge layer. Our numerical results were criticized in [Kulikovsky, PRL 89, 229401 (2002)]. We here present an adaptive grid refinement method for streamer simulations, and we carry out the first conclusive investigation on the effect of the numerical grid on streamer branching in different fields. On stepwise finer grids the branching time converges, hence streamer branching is for the first time predicted quantitatively.