626 research outputs found
Quantifying fusion born ion populations in magnetically confined plasmas using ion cyclotron emission
Ion cyclotron emission (ICE) offers unique promise as a diagnostic of the
fusion born alpha-particle population in magnetically confined plasmas.
Pioneering observations from JET and TFTR found that ICE intensity
scales approximately linearly with the measured neutron flux from fusion
reactions, and with the inferred concentration, , of fusion-born
alpha-particles confined within the plasma. We present fully nonlinear
self-consistent kinetic simulations that reproduce this scaling for the first
time. This resolves a longstanding question in the physics of fusion
alpha-particle confinement and stability in MCF plasmas. It confirms the
magnetoacoustic cyclotron instability (MCI) as the likely emission mechanism
and greatly strengthens the basis for diagnostic exploitation of ICE in future
burning plasmas
A sandpile model with tokamak-like enhanced confinement phenomenology
Confinement phenomenology characteristic of magnetically confined plasmas
emerges naturally from a simple sandpile algorithm when the parameter
controlling redistribution scalelength is varied. Close analogues are found for
enhanced confinement, edge pedestals, and edge localised modes (ELMs), and for
the qualitative correlations between them. These results suggest that tokamak
observations of avalanching transport are deeply linked to the existence of
enhanced confinement and ELMs.Comment: Manuscript is revtex (latex) 1 file, 7 postscript figures Revised
version is final version accepted for publication in PRL Revisions are mino
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An Apparent Relation between ELM Occurrence Times and the Prior Evolution of Divertor Flux Loop Measurements in JET
The scaling properties of dissipation in incompressible isotropic three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic turbulence
The statistical properties of the dissipation process constrain the analysis
of large scale numerical simulations of three dimensional incompressible
magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence, such as those of Biskamp and Muller
[Phys. Plasmas 7, 4889 (2000)]. The structure functions of the turbulent flow
are expected to display statistical self-similarity, but the relatively low
Reynolds numbers attainable by direct numerical simulation, combined with the
finite size of the system, make this difficult to measure directly. However, it
is known that extended self-similarity, which constrains the ratio of scaling
exponents of structure functions of different orders, is well satisfied. This
implies the extension of physical scaling arguments beyond the inertial range
into the dissipation range. The present work focuses on the scaling properties
of the dissipation process itself. This provides an important consistency check
in that we find that the ratio of dissipation structure function exponents is
that predicted by the She and Leveque [Phys. Rev. Lett 72, 336 (1994)] theory
proposed by Biskamp and Muller. This supplies further evidence that the cascade
mechanism in three dimensional MHD turbulence is non-linear random eddy
scrambling, with the level of intermittency determined by dissipation through
the formation of current sheets.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures. Figures embedded in text. Typos corrected in text
and references. Published in Physics of Plasmas. Abstract can be found
at:http://link.aip.org/link/?php/12/02230
Self-consistent nonlinear kinetic simulations of the anomalous Doppler instability of suprathermal electrons in plasmas
Suprathermal tails in the distributions of electron velocities parallel to the magnetic field are found in many areas of plasma physics, from magnetic confinement fusion to solar system plasmas. Parallel electron kinetic energy can be transferred into plasma waves and perpendicular gyration energy of particles through the anomalous Doppler instability (ADI), provided that energetic electrons with parallel velocities v ≥ (ω + Ωce )/k are present; here Ωce denotes electron cyclotron frequency, ω the wave angular frequency and k the component of wavenumber parallel to the magnetic field. This phenomenon is widely observed in tokamak plasmas. Here we present the first fully self-consistent relativistic particle-in-cell simulations of the ADI, spanning the linear and nonlinear regimes of the ADI. We test the robustness of the analytical theory in the linear regime and follow the ADI through to the steady state. By directly evaluating the parallel and perpendicular dynamical contributions to j · E in the simulations, we follow the energy transfer between
the excited waves and the bulk and tail electron populations for the first time. We find that the ratio Ωce /(ωpe + Ωce ) of energy transfer between parallel and perpendicular, obtained from linear analysis, does not apply when damping is fully included, when we find it to be ωpe /(ωpe + Ωce ); here ωpe denotes the electron plasma frequency. We also find that the ADI can arise beyond the previously expected range of plasma parameters, in particular when Ωce > ωpe . The simulations also exhibit a spectral feature which may
correspond to observations of suprathermal narrowband emission at ωpe detected from low density tokamak plasmas
Macroscopic control parameter for avalanche models for bursty transport
Similarity analysis is used to identify the control parameter RA for the subset of avalanching systems that can exhibit self-organized criticality (SOC). This parameter expresses the ratio of driving to dissipation. The transition to SOC, when the number of excited degrees of freedom is maximal, is found to occur when RA-->0. This is in the opposite sense to (Kolmogorov) turbulence, thus identifying a deep distinction between turbulence and SOC and suggesting an observable property that could distinguish them. A corollary of this similarity analysis is that SOC phenomenology, that is, power law scaling of avalanches, can persist for finite RA with the same RA-->0 exponent if the system supports a sufficiently large range of lengthscales, necessary for SOC to be a candidate for physical (RA finite) systems
Intrinsic ELMing in ASDEX Upgrade and global control system-plasma self-entrainment
It is well established that edge localized modes can be entrained to the frequency of applied global magnetic perturbations. These perturbations are delivered to the plasma using the vertical control system field coil currents. These field coils are part of an active control system that is required to maintain the plasma in a steady state. We perform time domain timeseries analysis of natural ELMing when there are no applied perturbations in the ASDEX Upgrade tokamak. We find that the plasma can transition into a state in which the control system field coil currents continually oscillate and are synchronized with oscillations in characteristic plasma parameters such as plasma edge position and total MHD energy. These synchronous oscillations have a one-to-one correlation with the naturally occurring ELMs; the ELMs all occur when the control system coil current is around a specific temporal phase. Large and small ELMs may be distinguished by the amplitude of inward movement of the edge following an ELM. Large ELMs are then found to occur preferentially around a specific temporal phase of the vertical position control coil current. Small ELMs are most likely in antiphase to this. The large and small natural ELMs occur at the opposite extrema of the oscillations in the control system vertical position control coil current. The control system coil current phase may thus provide a useful parameter to order the observed ELM dynamics. We have identified a class of natural ELMing which is a self-entrained state, in which there is a continual non-linear feedback between the global plasma dynamics and the active control system that is intrinsic to the cyclic dynamics of naturally occurring ELMs. Control system-plasma feedback thus becomes an essential component for integration into future models of natural ELM dynamics
Control system-plasma synchronization and naturally occurring edge localized modes in a tokamak
Edge Localised Modes (ELMs) naturally occur in tokamak plasmas in high confinement mode. We find in ASDEX Upgrade that the plasma can transition into a state in which the control system field coil currents, required to continually stabilize the plasma, continually oscillate with the plasma edge position and total MHD energy. These synchronous oscillations are one-to-one correlated with the occurrence of natural ELMs; the ELMs all occur when the control system coil current is around a specific phase. This suggests a phase synchronous state in which nonlinear feedback between plasma and control system is intrinsic to natural ELMing, and in which the occurrence time of a natural ELM is conditional on the phase of the control system field coil current
On the Origins of Starburst and Post-Starburst Galaxies in Nearby Clusters
HST WFPC2 images in B (F450W) and I (F814W) have been obtained for three
starburst (SB) and two post-starburst (PSB) galaxies in the Coma cluster, and
for three such galaxies in the cluster DC2048-52. V (F555W) and I images for an
additional PSB galaxy in Coma have been extracted from the archive. Seven of
these galaxies were previously classified as E/S0 on the basis of ground-based
images, one as Sa, and the other as an irregular.
The HST images reveal these SB/PSB galaxies to be heterogeneous in
morphology. Nevertheless a common theme is that many of them, especially the SB
galaxies, tend to have centralized spiral structure that appears simply as a
bright ``bulge''on ground-based images. In addition, while some PSB galaxies
exhibit distinct spiral structure, on the whole they have smoother morphologies
than the SB galaxies. The morphologies and luminosity profiles are generally
consistent with substantial starbursts in the form of centralized spiral
structure (the SB galaxies) which fade into smoother morphologies (the PSB
galaxies), with lingering spectroscopic evidence for past central starbursts.
An important point is that the PSB galaxies retain disks, i.e, they have not
evolved into spheroidal systems.Comment: 32 pages, 10 figures including 3 jpg images. To appear in the January
1999 Astronomical Journa
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