Fast Fourier Transform simulation techniques for Coulomb gases

An improved approach to updating the electric field in simulations of Coulomb gases using the local lattice technique introduced by Maggs and Rossetto [A.C. Maggs, V. Rossetto, Phys. Rev. Lett. 88 (2002) 196402] is described and tested. Using the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) an independent configuration of electric fields subject to Gauss' law constraint can be generated in a single update step. This FFT based method is shown to outperform previous approaches to updating the electric field in the simulation of a basic test problem in electrostatics of strongly correlated systems.