Chapter Three: Single Particle

A good starting point to explore a complex plasma phenomenon is often the single particle behavior, which can be the significant first step to gain insight into the relevant plasma physics. While the collective plasma phenomena and the nonlinear many-body physics can deviate from the overly simplified single particle picture, and wave, fluid, or kinetic and statistical descriptions are indispensable, physical effects, as a rule, have to originate from the single particle motions in a consistent way. Moreover, treating all the particles self-consistently, as, in particle simulation, unmistakably reveals the underlying physics. This Chapter will introduce the single particle physics and the related numerical algorithms.