8. A local model
The library now holds over a hundred papers, more than you will read. A language model can order them, summarise them and lay them side by side. This chapter runs one on the same machine with Ollama; a cloud API works the same way.
Ranking without a model
console
$ mosaic search "electron transport" --cached --sort relevance
Searching local cache for 'electron transport'…
# Title Authors Year DOI Source OA PDF Cited Rel.
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
1 Three-dimensional Yin-Jian 2025 10.1017/S00223 Semantic yes ✓ 1 1.00
particle-in-cell Zhao et 77826102189 Scholar
simulations on Hall al.
thruster electron drift …
2 Two-dimensional hybrid Rei 2021 10.1063/5.0045 arXiv yes ✓ – 0.99
model of gradient drift Kawashima 984
instability and enhanced & Kimiya
electro… Komurasaki
3 Cross-field chaotic Debraj 2019 10.48550/arXiv arXiv yes ✓ – 0.98
transport of electrons by Mandal et .1907.08407
$\vec E \times \vec B$ al.
electron d…
4 Anomalous cross field C. 2006 10.1063/1.2360 OpenAlex no – 99 0.94
electron transport in a Boniface 182
Hall effect thruster et al.
5 Particle-In-Cell modelling Lucas 2019 – HAL yes ✓ – 0.94
of acceleration region in Nicolle et
Hall Thruster al.
6 Near-Wall Pathways of Zhe Liu et 2026 10.1103/p8v6-6 arXiv yes ✓ – 0.93
Anomalous Electron al. 6mq
Transport in Hall
Thrusters Revealed b…
7 Cross-field chaotic D. Mandal 2019 10.1063/1.5134 arXiv yes ✓ – 0.93
transport of electrons by et al. 148
ExB electron drift
instability in…
8 Data-driven analysis of Bayón-Buj… 2025 10.1007/s44205 Europe PMC yes ✓ – 0.92
anomalous transport and B et al. -025-00158-6
three-wave-coupling
effects in …
9 Two-dimensional Modeling Rei 2018 10.48550/arXiv arXiv yes ✓ – 0.92
of the Hall Thruster Kawashima .1805.06120
Discharge with Non-uniform et al.
Propel…
10 Theory for the anomalous Trevor 2016 10.1063/1.4948 OpenAlex no – 151 0.91
electron transport in Hall Lafleur et 496
effect thrusters. II. al.
Kinet…
11 Optical study of anomalous Meezan, N. 1999 10.2514/6.1999 Crossref no – – 0.89
electron transport in a et al. -2284
laboratory Hall thruster
12 State Estimation of Troyetsky, 2023 10.1109/icops4 Crossref no – – 0.89
Anomalous Electron D. et al. 5740.2023.1048
Transport in a Hall-Effect 1135
Thruster Disc…
13 Optimal Experimental Allen, 2024 10.2514/6.2024 Crossref no – – 0.89
Design for Inferring Madison G. -2164
Anomalous Electron et al.
Transport in a Hal…
14 Anomalous cross-field Brown ZA & 2023 10.1103/physre Europe PMC no – – 0.89
transport in a Hall Jorns BA. ve.108.065204
thruster inferred from
direct measure…
15 E × B electron drift Jean-Pier… 2018 10.1063/1.5017 OpenAlex yes ✓ 144 0.88
instability in Hall Bœuf & 033
thrusters: Laurent
Particle-in-cell Garrigues
simulation…
16 Kinetic effects in a Hall Igor 2007 10.1063/1.2709 OpenAlex no – 134 0.87
thruster discharge Kaganovich 865
et al.
17 Two-Dimensional (z-theta) Cheryl Lam 2009 – OpenAlex no ✓ 0 0.87
Simulations of Hall et al.
Thruster Anomalous
Transport
18 Anomalous transport F. 2009 10.1063/1.3152 OpenAlex yes – 58 0.86
induced by sheath Taccogna 270
instability in Hall effect et al.
thrusters
19 Axial-radial plasma Shaun 2024 10.1088/1361-6 arXiv yes ✓ – 0.86
transport and performance Andrews et 595/ade286
of a plasma thruster al.
magnetic noz…
20 Comparison between ad-hoc Roberto 2019 10.1063/1.5089 HAL no – – 0.86
and instability-induced Martorelli 008
electron anomalous et al.
transport …
21 Full Particle-In-Cell James 2013 10.2514/1.b347 OpenAlex no – 79 0.84
Simulation Methodology for Szabo et 74
Axisymmetric Hall Effect al.
Thrus…
22 3D particle-in-cell study W. 2023 10.1063/5.0133 HAL yes ✓ 38 0.83
of the electron drift Villafana 963
instability in a Hall et al.
Thruster …
23 Enhancing one-dimensional Farbod 2022 10.1063/5.0090 arXiv yes ✓ – 0.82
particle-in-cell Faraji et 853
simulations to al.
self-consistently res…
24 Numerical Study of Zahra 2019 10.3389/fphy.2 DOAJ yes ✓ – 0.81
Electron Cyclotron Drift Asadi et 019.00140
Instability: Application al.
to Hall Th…
25 Ionization instability and Potrivitu 2022 10.21203/rs.3. Europe PMC no – – 0.78
turbulence in the plume of G & Xu S. rs-1806238/v1
sub-ampere hollow cathode…
26 Application of sparse grid Laurent 2021 10.1063/5.0044 HAL yes ✓ – 0.76
combination techniques to Garrigues 865
low temperature plasmas et al.
Pa…
27 Evaluation of Hall Thomas A. 2023 10.2514/6.2023 OpenAlex no – 1 0.75
thruster anomalous Marks & -0067
transport models obtained Benjamin
via data-driven… Jorns
28 Tutorial: Physics and Jean-Pier… 2017 10.1063/1.4972 OpenAlex no – 502 0.71
modeling of Hall thrusters Bœuf 269
29 Axial-azimuthal Fluid Poli D & 2026 10.21203/rs.3. Europe PMC no – – 0.68
Modelling of the Hall Ahedo E. rs-10852565/v1
Effect Thruster Discharge
30 Plasma Dynamics and Maryam 2024 10.3390/plasma DOAJ yes ✓ – 0.66
Electron Transport in a Reza et 7030034
Hall-Thruster-Representat… al.
Config…
31 Electronic transport and Marc Chung 2024 10.70675/88dd8 HAL yes ✓ – 0.62
secondary emission in a To Sang 730zab32z4e2dz
Hall thruster a662z9abb69862
e52
32 Investigation of the Tarek Ben 2023 10.70675/efb49 HAL yes ✓ – 0.60
Optical Emission of Hall Slimane 6d0z3facz4f0cz
Effect Thrusters using a b9c6z93c8e5219
Collisio… 6d6
33 Disordered Quantum Jian-Xiao 2019 10.1103/PhysRe arXiv yes ✓ – 0.58
Transport in Quantum Zhang & vB.102.144513
Anomalous Hall Chao-Xing
Insulator-Superconductor… Liu
34 Reduced-order Maryam 2023 10.1088/1361-6 arXiv yes ✓ – 0.58
particle-in-cell Reza et 595/acdea3
simulations of a al.
high-power magnetically
shielde…
35 Tunable linear and Lulu Xiong 2024 10.1088/1361-6 arXiv yes ✓ – 0.55
nonlinear anomalous Hall et al. 48X/ae084d
transport in
two-dimensional CrPS$_…
35 result(s)--sort relevance scores every result against the query and adds the Rel. column, normalised so the best paper scores 1.00. With no model configured the score is BM25, word statistics over titles and abstracts computed on your machine in milliseconds. It rewards the query's words, not their meaning.
Configuring a model
bash
ollama pull qwen3.8:27b # any chat model you have; this one has 27 billion parameters
mosaic config --llm-provider openai --llm-base-url http://localhost:11434/v1 \
--llm-api-key ollama --llm-model qwen3.8:27b --llm-timeout 900--llm-provider openaiwith a--llm-base-urlmeans "an OpenAI-compatible server": Ollama, LM Studio, llama.cpp, vLLM. The key can be any word; Ollama ignores it.- For the cloud, leave out the base URL and give a real key:
--llm-provider openai --llm-api-key sk-..., or--llm-provider anthropic --llm-api-key sk-ant-.... Without--llm-model, mosaic uses a small model of that provider. --llm-timeoutis how many seconds mosaic waits for one answer. A large model on a desktop GPU can need minutes when it reasons before answering; without the option, mosaic waits two to three minutes.
With a model configured, --sort relevance asks it to score the papers, 20 at a time, and falls back to BM25 if the model fails.
A summary of the results
console
$ mosaic search "hall thruster anomalous electron transport" --source arxiv --max 6 --summarise
# Title Authors Year DOI Source OA PDF
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
1 Near-Wall Pathways of Anomalous Zhe Liu et 2026 10.1103/p8v6-66mq arXiv yes ✓
Electron Transport in Hall Thrusters al.
Revealed b…
2 Plasma Diagnostic and Performance of Jose Leonardo 2004 10.48550/arXiv.physi arXiv yes ✓
a Permanent Magnet Hall Thruster Ferreira et cs/0410170
al.
3 Cross-field chaotic transport of D. Mandal et 2019 10.1063/1.5134148 arXiv yes ✓
electrons by ExB electron drift al.
instability in…
4 Two-dimensional hybrid model of Rei Kawashima 2021 10.1063/5.0045984 arXiv yes ✓
gradient drift instability and & Kimiya
enhanced electro… Komurasaki
5 Cross-field chaotic transport of Debraj Mandal 2019 10.48550/arXiv.1907. arXiv yes ✓
electrons by $\vec E \times \vec B$ et al. 08407
electron d…
6 Electric field induced Berry Srimayi 2025 10.48550/arXiv.2510. arXiv yes ✓
curvature dipole and non-linear Korrapati et 20237
anomalous Hall eff… al.
6 result(s)
╭─ AI summary ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╮
│ Studying anomalous cross-field electron transport in Hall thrusters has progressed from early experimental work │
│ characterizing plasma performance and density profiles [2] to increasingly dimensionally rich simulations. In 2019, │
│ model calculations showed that collisionless, chaotic electron dynamics driven by E×B electron drift instabilities │
│ produce cross-field transport roughly 100 times above collisional levels, with wave–particle interactions │
│ significantly raising the perpendicular electron temperature [3][5]. A 2021 study then used a two-dimensional hybrid │
│ particle-fluid model to isolate the gradient-drift-instability contribution to transport enhancement near the │
│ channel exit and in the plume region [4]. The 2026 work advances the field with three-dimensional particle-in-cell │
│ simulations resolving individual instabilities, revealing that anomalous transport self-organizes into non-uniform │
│ near-wall pathways rather than distributing uniformly across the channel cross section [1]. Overall, the field has │
│ moved from phenomenological characterisation toward geometry- and instability-resolving simulations that clarify the │
│ spatial structure of anomalous transport. │
╰──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╯--summarise (or --summarize) sends the titles and abstracts of the first 40 results, never the PDFs, and asks for one paragraph that cites the rows as [n]. The model is told to use nothing but the abstracts; check any claim that matters against the paper. With --json, the paragraph is in the summary field.
A comparison table
console
$ mosaic compare --query "hall thruster" -n 4 --dimensions "method,dimensionality,key finding"
# Title Year Authors Method Dimensionality Key Finding
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
1 Plasma Diagnostic and 2004 Jose Experimental plasma - Demonstrated plasma
Performance of a Leonardo diagnostics and density and
Permanent Magnet Hall Ferreira performance temperature spatial
Thruster et al. measurement of a Hall profiles (inside and
thruster outside the channel)
of a Hall thruster
using an array of
permanent magnets
instead…
2 Reduced-order 2023 Maryam Reduced-order - Demonstrated the
particle-in-cell Reza et particle-in-cell applicability of a
simulations of a al. (PIC) simulation novel reduced-order
high-power PIC scheme for a
magnetically… cost-efficient,
self-consistent
simulation of a 20
kW magnetically
shielded Hall…
3 Effects of the 2023 Farbod Particle-in-cell 1D (axial) and Conducted an
neutral dynamics Faraji et (PIC) simulation with quasi-2D extensive
model on the al. multiple neutral (axial-azimuthal) sensitivity study
particle-in-cell dynamics models showing how the
simulations of a… (kinetic/DSMC vs. 1D choice of neutral
fluid) dynamics model
(fluid vs. kinetic)
affects ionization,
electron mobility,
and…
4 Dimensionality 2022 Maryam Reduced-order Quasi-2D The
reduction of Reza et particle-in-cell (axial-azimuthal) dimensionality-reduc
Poisson's equation al. (PIC) simulation with ed Poisson
with application to… a formulation achieved
dimensionality-reduce a remarkable
d Poisson's equation reduction in
formulation computational cost
(Vlasov-Poisson while accurately
system) reproducing axial
distributions of…
4 paper(s) comparedmosaic compare takes papers from the cache (--query, --from refs.bib, or the whole cache) and asks the model to fill one column per --dimensions entry from each abstract; the default columns are method, dataset, metric and result. --output table.md (or .csv, .json) writes the table to a file. Without a model, only metadata columns such as year and journal get values, and mosaic says so.
What you learned
BM25 ranking with no model; one mosaic config for a local or cloud model; --sort relevance with the model, --summarise, mosaic compare. Guides: Relevance ranking, Comparing papers, Local RAG for model setups.
Next: 9. Asking your library.