Nonlinear evolution of the m=1 internal kink mode in the presence of magnetohydrodynamic turbulence

The nonlinear evolution of the m=1 internal kink mode is studied numerically in a setting where the tokamak core plasma is surrounded by a turbulent region with low magnetic shear. As a starting point we choose configurations with three nearby q=1 surfaces where triple tearing modes (TTMs) with high poloidal mode numbers m are unstable. While the amplitudes are still small, the fast growing high-m TTMs enhance the growth of the m=1 instability. This is interpreted as a fast sawtooth trigger mechanism. The TTMs lead to a partial collapse, leaving behind a turbulent belt with q ~= 1 around the unreconnected core plasma. Although, full reconnection can occur if the core displacement grows large enough, it is shown that the turbulence may actively prevent further reconnection. This is qualitatively similar to experimentally observed partial sawtooth crashes with post-cursor oscillations due to a saturated internal kink.Comment: 14 pages, 13 figure

Velocity field distributions due to ideal line vortices

We evaluate numerically the velocity field distributions produced by a bounded, two-dimensional fluid model consisting of a collection of parallel ideal line vortices. We sample at many spatial points inside a rigid circular boundary. We focus on ``nearest neighbor'' contributions that result from vortices that fall (randomly) very close to the spatial points where the velocity is being sampled. We confirm that these events lead to a non-Gaussian high-velocity ``tail'' on an otherwise Gaussian distribution function for the Eulerian velocity field. We also investigate the behavior of distributions that do not have equilibrium mean-field probability distributions that are uniform inside the circle, but instead correspond to both higher and lower mean-field energies than those associated with the uniform vorticity distribution. We find substantial differences between these and the uniform case.Comment: 21 pages, 9 figures. To be published in Physical Review E (http://pre.aps.org/) in May 200

Kramers-Moyall cumulant expansion for the probability distribution of parallel transporters in quantum gauge fields

A general equation for the probability distribution of parallel transporters on the gauge group manifold is derived using the cumulant expansion theorem. This equation is shown to have a general form known as the Kramers-Moyall cumulant expansion in the theory of random walks, the coefficients of the expansion being directly related to nonperturbative cumulants of the shifted curvature tensor. In the limit of a gaussian-dominated QCD vacuum the obtained equation reduces to the well-known heat kernel equation on the group manifold.Comment: 7 page

Stability of tearing modes in tokamak plasmas

The stability properties of m {ge} 2 tearing instabilities in tokamak plasmas are analyzed. A boundary layer theory is used to find asymptotic solutions to the ideal external kink equation which are used to obtain a simple analytic expression for the tearing instability parameter {Delta}{prime}. This calculation generalizes previous work on this topic by considering more general toroidal equilibria (however, toroidal coupling effects are ignored). Constructions of {Delta}{prime} are obtained for plasmas with finite beta and for islands that have nonzero width. A simple heuristic estimate is given for the value of the saturated island width when the instability criterion is violated. A connection is made between the calculation of the asymptotic matching parameter in the finite beta and island width case to the nonlinear analog of the Glasser effect

The spatial correlations in the velocities arising from a random distribution of point vortices

This paper is devoted to a statistical analysis of the velocity fluctuations arising from a random distribution of point vortices in two-dimensional turbulence. Exact results are derived for the correlations in the velocities occurring at two points separated by an arbitrary distance. We find that the spatial correlation function decays extremely slowly with the distance. We discuss the analogy with the statistics of the gravitational field in stellar systems.Comment: 37 pages in RevTeX format (no figure); submitted to Physics of Fluid

The optical identifcation of events with poorly defined locations: The case of the Fermi GBM GRB140801A

We report the early discovery of the optical afterglow of gamma-ray burst (GRB) 140801A in the 137 deg$^2$ 3-$\sigma$ error-box of the Fermi Gamma-ray Burst Monitor (GBM). MASTER is the only observatory that automatically react to all Fermi alerts. GRB 140801A is one of the few GRBs whose optical counterpart was discovered solely from its GBM localization. The optical afterglow of GRB 140801A was found by MASTER Global Robotic Net 53 sec after receiving the alert, making it the fastest optical detection of a GRB from a GBM error-box. Spectroscopy obtained with the 10.4-m Gran Telescopio Canarias and the 6-m BTA of SAO RAS reveals a redshift of $z=1.32$. We performed optical and near-infrared photometry of GRB 140801A using different telescopes with apertures ranging from 0.4-m to 10.4-m. GRB 140801A is a typical burst in many ways. The rest-frame bolometric isotropic energy release and peak energy of the burst is $E_\mathrm{iso} = 5.54_{-0.24}^{+0.26} \times 10^{52}$ erg and $E_\mathrm{p, rest}\simeq280$ keV, respectively, which is consistent with the Amati relation. The absence of a jet break in the optical light curve provides a lower limit on the half-opening angle of the jet $\theta=6.1$ deg. The observed $E_\mathrm{peak}$ is consistent with the limit derived from the Ghirlanda relation. The joint Fermi GBM and Konus-Wind analysis shows that GRB 140801A could belong to the class of intermediate duration. The rapid detection of the optical counterpart of GRB 140801A is especially important regarding the upcoming experiments with large coordinate error-box areas.Comment: in press MNRAS, 201

A Built-In Strategy for Containment of Transgenic Plants: Creation of Selectively Terminable Transgenic Rice

Plant transgenic technology has been widely utilized for engineering crops for trait improvements and for production of high value proteins such as pharmaceuticals. However, the unintended spreading of commercial transgenic crops by pollination and seed dispersal is a major concern for environmental and food safety. Simple and reliable containment strategies for transgenes are highly desirable. Here we report a novel method for creating selectively terminable transgenic rice. In this method, the gene(s) of interest is tagged with a RNA interference cassette, which specifically suppresses the expression of the bentazon detoxification enzyme CYP81A6 and thus renders transgenic rice to be sensitive to bentazon, a herbicide used for rice weed control. We generated transgenic rice plants by this method using a new glyphosate resistant 5-enolpyruvylshikimate-3-phosphate synthase (EPSPS) gene from Pesudomonas putida as the gene of interest, and demonstrated that these transgenic rice plants were highly sensitive to bentazon but tolerant to glyphosate, which is exactly the opposite of conventional rice. Field trial of these transgenic rice plants further confirmed that they can be selectively killed at 100% by one spray of bentazon at a regular dose used for conventional rice weed control. Furthermore, we found that the terminable transgenic rice created in this study shows no difference in growth, development and yield compared to its non-transgenic control. Therefore, this method of creating transgenic rice constitutes a novel strategy of transgene containment, which appears simple, reliable and inexpensive for implementation