Reaction Time of a Group of Physics Students

The reaction time of a group of students majoring in Physics is reported here. Strong co-relation between fatigue, reaction time and performance have been seen and may be useful for academicians and administrators responsible of working out time-tables, course structures, students counsellings etc.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figure

Comprehensive energy transport scalings derived from DIII-D similarity experiments

The dependences of heat transport on the dimensionless plasma physics parameters has been measured for both L-mode and H-mode plasmas on the DIII-D tokamak. Heat transport in L-mode plasmas has a gyroradius scaling that is gyro-Bohm-like for electrons and worse than Bohm-like for ions, with no measurable beta or collisionality dependence; this corresponds to having an energy confinement time that scales like {tau}{sub E} {proportional_to} n{sup 0.5}P{sup {minus}0.5}. H-mode plasmas have gyro-Bohm-like scaling of heat transport for both electrons and ions, weak beta scaling, and moderate collisionality scaling. In addition, H-mode plasmas have a strong safety factor scaling ({chi} {approximately} q{sup 2}) at all radii. Combining these four dimensionless parameter scalings together gives an energy confinement time scaling for H-mode plasmas like {tau}{sub E} {proportional_to} B{sup {minus}1}{rho}{sup {minus}3.15}{beta}{sup 0.03}v{sup {minus}0.42}q{sub 95}{sup {minus}1.43} {proportional_to} I{sup 0.84}B{sup 0.39}n{sup 0.18}P{sup {minus}0.41}L{sup 2.0}, which is similar to empirical scalings derived from global confinement databases

Modeling of electron cyclotron current drive experiments on DIII-D

Electron Cyclotron Current Drive (ECCD) is considered a leading candidate for current profile control in Advanced Tokamak (AT) operation. Localized ECCD has been clearly demonstrated in recent proof-of-principle experiments on DIII-D. The measured ECCD efficiency near the magnetic axis agrees well with standard theoretical predictions. However, for off-axis current drive the normalized experimental efficiency does not decrease with minor radius as expected from the standard theory; the observed reduction of ECCD efficiency due to trapped electron effects in the off-axis cases is smaller than theoretical predictions. The standard approach of modeling ECCD in tokamaks has been based on the bounce-average calculations, which assume the bounce frequency is much larger than the effective collision frequency for trapped electrons at all energies. The assumption is clearly invalid at low energies. Finite collisionality will effectively reduce the trapped electron fraction, hence, increase current drive efficiency. Here, a velocity-space connection formula is proposed to estimate the collisionality effect on electron cyclotron current drive efficiency. The collisionality correction gives modest improvement in agreement between theoretical and recent DIII-D experimental results

Implications from dimensionless parameter scaling experiments

The dimensionless parameter scaling approach is increasingly useful for predicting future tokamak performance and guiding theoretical models of energy transport. Experiments to determine the {rho}* (gyroradius normalized to plasma size) scaling have been carried out in many regimes. The electron {rho}* scaling is always ``gyro-Bohm``, while the ion {rho}* scaling varied with regime. The ion variation is correlated with both density scale length (L mode, H mode) and current profile. The ion {rho}* scaling in the low-q, H-mode regime is gyro-Bohm, which is the most favorable confinement scaling observed. New experiments in {beta} scaling and collisionality scaling have been carried out in low-q discharges in both L mode and H mode. In L mode, global analysis shows that there is a slightly unfavorable {beta} dependence ({beta}{sup {minus}0.1}) and no {nu}* dependence. In H-mode, global analysis finds a weak {beta} dependence ({beta}{sup 0.1}) and an unfavorable dependence on {nu}*. The lack of significant {beta} scaling spans the range of {beta}{sub N} from 0.25 to 2.0. The very small {beta} dependence in L mode and H mode is in contradiction with the standard global scaling relations. This contradiction in H mode may be indicative of the impact on the H-mode database of low-n tearing instabilities which are observed at slightly higher {beta}{sub N} in the {beta} scaling experiments. The measured {beta} and {nu}* scalings explain the weak density dependence observed in engineering parameter scans. It also points to the power of the dimensionless parameter approach, since it is possible to obtain a definitive size scaling from experiments on a single tokamak

Response theory for time-resolved second-harmonic generation and two-photon photoemission

A unified response theory for the time-resolved nonlinear light generation and two-photon photoemission (2PPE) from metal surfaces is presented. The theory allows to describe the dependence of the nonlinear optical response and the photoelectron yield, respectively, on the time dependence of the exciting light field. Quantum-mechanical interference effects affect the results significantly. Contributions to 2PPE due to the optical nonlinearity of the surface region are derived and shown to be relevant close to a plasmon resonance. The interplay between pulse shape, relaxation times of excited electrons, and band structure is analyzed directly in the time domain. While our theory works for arbitrary pulse shapes, we mainly focus on the case of two pulses of the same mean frequency. Difficulties in extracting relaxation rates from pump-probe experiments are discussed, for example due to the effect of detuning of intermediate states on the interference. The theory also allows to determine the range of validity of the optical Bloch equations and of semiclassical rate equations, respectively. Finally, we discuss how collective plasma excitations affect the nonlinear optical response and 2PPE.Comment: 27 pages, including 11 figures, version as publishe

Rational bidding using reinforcement learning: an application in automated resource allocation

The application of autonomous agents by the provisioning and usage of computational resources is an attractive research field. Various methods and technologies in the area of artificial intelligence, statistics and economics are playing together to achieve i) autonomic resource provisioning and usage of computational resources, to invent ii) competitive bidding strategies for widely used market mechanisms and to iii) incentivize consumers and providers to use such market-based systems. The contributions of the paper are threefold. First, we present a framework for supporting consumers and providers in technical and economic preference elicitation and the generation of bids. Secondly, we introduce a consumer-side reinforcement learning bidding strategy which enables rational behavior by the generation and selection of bids. Thirdly, we evaluate and compare this bidding strategy against a truth-telling bidding strategy for two kinds of market mechanisms – one centralized and one decentralized