For kinetic plasma problems driven by strong wave phenomena, the classic particle-in-cell (PIC) method remains a widely used tool and one used with substantial success for decades. However, the inherent limitations of PIC associated with a lack of geometric flexibility and 2nd order accuracy suggests that research into the development of modern alternatives is needed.

In this talk we discuss some development in this direction. In particular, we propose a method based on a discontinuous Galerkin solver for the electromagnetic part of the problems and a cloud based approach for particles. We shall discuss a variety of issues related to charge conservation, effective time-stepping, and the treatment of complex geometries and illustrate the performance of the scheme through two- and three-dimensional test cases.