Electric Field Initializations

The default for the initialization value of all electric fields is "0.0". This is usually the appropriate value for most situations. However, if a value different from zero is desired, then this value can be specified. On some computer platforms the existence of numerical underflows will significantly slow down the computation times. Numerical underflows are a consequence of finite difference and are due to the initial propagation of the electromagnetic signal through the problem space. Numerical underflows usually disappear after a few hundred time iterations. However, if this is undesirable, then an inconsequential value such as, 1.0e-30, can be assigned to all electric fields at the start of the simulation. This will remove the effects of the numerical underflows.