IAEA Theory Summary 1998 IAEA Meeting, Yokohama, Japan - Oct. 17--24, 1998

This is a summary of the advances in magnetic fusion energy theory research presented at the 17th International Atomic Energy Agency Fusion Energy Conference from 17--24 October, 1998 in Yokohama, Japan. Theory and simulation results from this conference provided encouraging evidence of significant progress in understanding the physics of thermonuclear plasmas. Indeed, the grand challenge for this field is to acquire the basic understanding that can readily enable the innovations which would make fusion energy practical. In this sense, as depicted in Fig. 1, research in fusion energy is increasingly able to be categorized as fitting well the ''Pasteur's Quadrant'' paradigm, where the research strongly couples basic science (''Bohr's Quadrant'') to technological impact (''Edison's Quadrant''). As supported by some of the work presented at this conference, this trend will be further enhanced by advanced simulations. Eventually, realistic three-dimensional modeling capabilities, when properly combined with rapid and complete data interpretation of results from both experiments and simulations, can contribute to a greatly enhanced cycle of understanding and innovation. Plasma science theory and simulation have provided reliable foundations for this improved modeling capability, and the exciting advances in high-performance computational resources have further accelerated progress

Introduction to gyrokinetic theory with applications in magnetic confinement research in plasma physics

The present lecture provides an introduction to the subject of gyrokinetic theory with applications in the area of magnetic confinement research in plasma physics--the research arena from which this formalism was originally developed. It was presented as a component of the ''Short Course in Kinetic Theory within the Thematic Program in Partial Differential Equations'' held at the Fields Institute for Research in Mathematical Science (24 March 2004). This lecture also discusses the connection between the gyrokinetic formalism and powerful modern numerical simulations. Indeed, simulation, which provides a natural bridge between theory and experiment, is an essential modern tool for understanding complex plasma behavior. Progress has been stimulated in particular by the exponential growth of computer speed along with significant improvements in computer technology. The advances in both particle and fluid simulations of fine-scale turbulence and large-scale dynamics have produced increasingly good agreement between experimental observations and computational modeling. This was enabled by two key factors: (i) innovative advances in analytic and computational methods for developing reduced descriptions of physics phenomena spanning widely disparate temporal and spatial scales and (ii) access to powerful new computational resources

Pullback Transformations in Gyrokinetic Theory

The Pullback transformation of the distribution function is a key component of the gyrokinetic theory. In this paper, a systematic treatment of this subject is presented, and results from applications of the uniform framework developed are reviewed. The focus is on providing a clear exposition of the basic formalism which arises from the existence of three distinct coordinate systems in gyrokinetic theory. The familiar gyrocenter coordinate system, where the gyromotion is decoupled from the rest of particle's dynamics, is non-canonical and non-fabric. On the other hand, Maxwell's equations, which are needed to complete a kinetic system, are initially only defined in the fabric laboratory phase space coordinate system. The pullback transformations provide a rigorous connection between the distribution functions in gyrocenter coordinates and Maxwell's equations in laboratory phase space coordinates. This involves the generalization of the usual moment integrals originally defined on the cotangent fiber of the phase space to the moment integrals on a general 6D symplectic manifold, is shown to be an important step in the proper formulation of gyrokinetic theory. The resultant systematic treatment of the moment integrals enabled by the pullback transformation. Without this vital element, a number of prominent physics features, such as the presence of the compressional Alfven wave and a proper description of the gyrokinetic equilibrium, cannot be readily recovered

Electron energy transport and magnetic curvature driven modes

A transport coefficient for anomalous electron thermal conduction is constructed on the basis of the so-called Principle of Profile Consistency. It is assumed that the relevant modes in plasma where a substantial fraction of the electron population is magnetically trapped produce magnetic reconnection at a microscopic level and are driven by the combined effects of the plasma pressure gradient and the magnetic field curvature. Consequently, the scaling for the electron energy confinement time exhibits a strongly favorable dependence on the radius of magnetic curvature

Symbolic Vector Analysis in Plasma Physics

Many problems in plasma physics involve substantial amounts of analytical vector calculation. The complexity usually originates from both the vector operations themselves and the choice of underlying coordinate system. A computer algebra package for symbolic vector analysis in general coordinate systems, GeneralVectorAnalysis (GVA), is developed using Mathematica. The modern viewpoint for 3D vector calculus, differential forms on 3-manifolds, is adopted to unify and systematize the vector calculus operations in general coordinate systems. This package will benefit physicists and applied mathematicians in their research where complicated vector analysis is required. It will not only save a huge amount of human brain-power and dramatically improve accuracy, but this package will also be an intelligent tool to assist researchers in finding the right approaches to their problems. Several applications of this symbolic vector analysis package to plasma physics are also given

Multispecies Density and Temperature Gradient Dependence of Quasilinear Particle and Energy Fluxes

The variations of the normalized quasilinear particle and energy fluxes with artificial changes in the density and temperature gradients, as well as the variations of the linear growth rates and real frequencies, for ion temperature gradient and trapped-electron modes, are calculated. The quasilinear fluxes are normalized to the total energy flux, summed over all species. Here, realistic cases for tokamaks and spherical torii are considered which have two impurity species. For situations where there are substantial changes in the normalized fluxes, the ''diffusive approximation,'' in which the normalized fluxes are taken to be linear in the gradients, is seen to be inaccurate. Even in the case of small artificial changes in density or temperature gradients, changes in the fluxes of different species (''off-diagonal'') generally are significant, or even dominant, compared to those for the same species (''diagonal'')

Trapped ion mode in toroidally rotating plasmas

The influence of radially sheared toroidal flows on the Trapped Ion Mode (TIM) is investigated using a two-dimensional eigenmode code. These radially extended toroidal microinstabilities could significantly influence the interpretation of confinement scaling trends and associated fluctuation properties observed in recent tokamak experiments. In the present analysis, the electrostatic drift kinetic equation is obtained from the general nonlinear gyrokinetic equation in rotating plasmas. In the long perpendicular wavelength limit k{sub {tau}}{rho}{sub bi} {much_lt} 1, where {rho}{sub bi} is the average trapped-ion banana width, the resulting eigenmode equation becomes a coupled system of second order differential equations nmo for the poloidal harmonics. These equations are solved using finite element methods. Numerical results from the analysis of low and medium toroidal mode number instabilities are presented using representative TFTR L-mode input parameters. To illustrate the effects of mode coupling, a case is presented where the poloidal mode coupling is suppressed. The influence of toroidal rotation on a TFTR L-mode shot is also analyzed by including a beam species with considerable larger temperature. A discussion of the numerical results is presented