Transport of energetic ions due to sawteeth, Alfven eigenmodes and microturbulence

Utilizing an array of new diagnostics and simulation/modelling techniques, recent DIII-D experiments have elucidated a variety of energetic ion transport behaviour in the presence of instabilities ranging from large-scale sawteeth to fine spatial scale microturbulence. Important new insights include sawteeth, such as those of the ITER baseline scenario, causing major redistribution of the energetic ion population; high levels of transport induced by low-amplitude Alfven eigenmodes can be caused by the integrated effect of a large number of simultaneous modes; ´ and microturbulence can contribute to the removal of alpha ash while having little effect on fusion alphas. This paper provides an overview of recent and upcoming results from the DIII-D Energetic Particles research programme.US Department of Energy SC-G903402, DE-FC02-04ER54698, DE-FG02-89ER53296, DE-FG02-08ER54999, DE-AC05-00OR22725, DE-AC02-09CH11466, DE-FG03-08ER54984, DE-FG02-07ER5491

Scintillator-based diagnostic for fast ion loss measurements on DIII-D

A new scintillator-based fast ion loss detector has been installed on DIII-D with the time response 100 kHz needed to study energetic ion losses induced by Alfvén eigenmodes and other MHD instabilities. Based on the design used on ASDEX Upgrade, the diagnostic measures the pitch angle and gyroradius of ion losses based on the position of the ions striking the two-dimensional scintillator. For fast time response measurements, a beam splitter and fiberoptics couple a portion of the scintillator light to a photomultiplier. Reverse orbit following techniques trace the lost ions to their possible origin within the plasma. Initial DIII-D results showing prompt losses and energetic ion loss due to MHD instabilities are discussed. © 2010 American Institute of Physics.U.S. Department of Energy DE-FC02-04ER54698, SC-G903402, DE-FG03-94ER5427

Convective beam ion losses due to Alfven eigenmodes in DIII-D reversed-shear plasmas

Coherent losses of neutral beam ions are observed at frequencies corresponding to toroidal and reversed-shear Alfven eigenmodes (RSAEs) in DIII-D. ´ Reversed-shear profiles are created by injecting beam power during the plasma current ramp. Beam ion losses stemming from Alfven eigenmode activity ´ contribute to flattening of the energetic ion density profile in such discharges. This is the first observation of convective beam ion losses due to RSAEs. The energies and pitch angles of lost ions are measured and found to exist within a well-defined region of phase space. Loss flux signals decrease in time as current penetrates and Alfven eigenmode activity becomes more core ´ localized. Preliminary Monte Carlo simulations of energetic ion interactions with measured mode structures show the dominant loss mechanism is a transition from a counter-passing orbit to a trapped orbit that is lost to the wall.US Department of Energy DE-AC05-06ER23100, SC-G903402, DE-FC02-04ER5469

Scrape-off layer ion acceleration during fast wave injection in the DIII-D tokamak

Fast wave injection is employed on the DIII-D tokamak as a current drive and electron heating method. Bursts of energetic ions with energy Eo > 20 keV are observed immediately following fast wave injection in experiments featuring the 8th ion cyclotron harmonic near the antenna. Using the energy and pitch angle of the energetic ion burst as measured by a fast-ion loss detector, it is possible to trace the origin of these ions to a particular antenna. The ion trajectories exist entirely within the scrape-off layer. These observations are consistent with the presence of parametric decay instabilities near the antenna strap. It is suggested that the phase space capabilities of the loss detector diagnostic can improve studies of wave injection coupling and efficiency in tokamaks by directly measuring the effects of parametric decay thresholds.US Department of Energy SC-G903402, DE-FG03-97ER4415, DE-FG02-89ER53296, DE-FG02-08ER549

Beam ion losses due to energetic particle geodesic acoustic modes

We report the first experimental observations of fast-ion loss in a tokamak due to energetic particle driven geodesic acoustic modes (EGAMs). A fast-ion loss detector installed on the DIII-D tokamak observes bursts of beam ion losses coherent with the EGAM frequency. The EGAM activity results in a significant loss of beam ions, comparable to the first orbit losses. The pitch angles and energies of the measured fast-ion losses agree with predictions from a full orbit simulation code SPIRAL, which includes scattering and slowing-down.U.S. Department of Energy DE-FC02-04ER 54698, SC-G903402, DE-AC02-09CH1146

Fast-ion redistribution and loss due to edge perturbations in the ASDEX Upgrade, DIII-D and KSTAR tokamaks

The impact of edge localized modes (ELMs) and externally applied resonant and non-resonant magnetic perturbations (MPs) on fast-ion confinement/transport have been investigated in the ASDEX Upgrade (AUG), DIII-D and KSTAR tokamaks. Two phases with respect to the ELM cycle can be clearly distinguished in ELM-induced fast-ion losses. Inter-ELM losses are characterized by a coherent modulation of the plasma density around the separatrix while intra-ELM losses appear as well-defined bursts. In high collisionality plasmas with mitigated ELMs, externally applied MPs have little effect on kinetic profiles, including fast-ions, while a strong impact on kinetic profiles is observed in low-collisionality, low q 95 plasmas with resonant and non-resonant MPs. In low-collisionality H-mode plasmas, the large fast-ion filaments observed during ELMs are replaced by a loss of fast-ions with a broad-band frequency and an amplitude of up to an order of magnitude higher than the neutral beam injection prompt loss signal without MPs. A clear synergy in the overall fast-ion transport is observed between MPs and neoclassical tearing modes. Measured fast-ion losses are typically on banana orbits that explore the entire pedestal/scrape-off layer. The fast-ion response to externally applied MPs presented here may be of general interest for the community to better understand the MP field penetration and overall plasma response.Ministerio de Economía y Empresa ((RYC-2011-09152 y ENE2012-31087)Marie Curie (Grant PCIG11-GA-2012-321455)US Department of Energy (DE-FC02-04ER54698, SC-G903402, DE-FG02-04ER54761, DE-AC02-09CH11466 and DE-FG02- 08ER54984)NRF Korea contract 2009-0082012MEST under the KSTAR projec

Hubble expansion and structure formation in the "running FLRW model" of the cosmic evolution

A new class of FLRW cosmological models with time-evolving fundamental parameters should emerge naturally from a description of the expansion of the universe based on the first principles of quantum field theory and string theory. Within this general paradigm, one expects that both the gravitational Newton's coupling, G, and the cosmological term, Lambda, should not be strictly constant but appear rather as smooth functions of the Hubble rate. This scenario ("running FLRW model") predicts, in a natural way, the existence of dynamical dark energy without invoking the participation of extraneous scalar fields. In this paper, we perform a detailed study of these models in the light of the latest cosmological data, which serves to illustrate the phenomenological viability of the new dark energy paradigm as a serious alternative to the traditional scalar field approaches. By performing a joint likelihood analysis of the recent SNIa data, the CMB shift parameter, and the BAOs traced by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, we put tight constraints on the main cosmological parameters. Furthermore, we derive the theoretically predicted dark-matter halo mass function and the corresponding redshift distribution of cluster-size halos for the "running" models studied. Despite the fact that these models closely reproduce the standard LCDM Hubble expansion, their normalization of the perturbation's power-spectrum varies, imposing, in many cases, a significantly different cluster-size halo redshift distribution. This fact indicates that it should be relatively easy to distinguish between the "running" models and the LCDM cosmology using realistic future X-ray and Sunyaev-Zeldovich cluster surveys.Comment: Version published in JCAP 08 (2011) 007: 1+41 pages, 6 Figures, 1 Table. Typos corrected. Extended discussion on the computation of the linearly extrapolated density threshold above which structures collapse in time-varying vacuum models. One appendix, a few references and one figure adde

Combination of fast-ion diagnostics in velocity-space tomographies:Paper

Fast-ion Dα (FIDA) and collective Thomson scattering (CTS) diagnostics provide indirect measurements of fastion velocity distribution functions in magnetically confined plasmas. Here we present the first prescription for velocity-space tomographic inversion of CTS and FIDA measurements that can use CTS and FIDA measurements together and that takes uncertainties in such measurements into account. Our prescription is general and could be applied to other diagnostics. We demonstrate tomographic reconstructions of an ASDEX Upgrade beam ion velocity distribution function. First, we compute synthetic measurements from two CTS views and two FIDA views using a TRANSP/NUBEAM simulation, and then we compute joint tomographic inversions in velocity-space from these. The overall shape of the 2D velocity distribution function and the location of the maxima at full and half beam injection energy are well reproduced in velocity-space tomographic inversions, if the noise level in the measurements is below 10%. Our results suggest that 2D fast-ion velocity distribution functions can be directly inferred from fast-ion measurements and their uncertainties, even if the measurements are taken with different diagnostic methods

Tomography of fast-ion velocity-space distributions from synthetic CTS and FIDA measurements

We compute tomographies of 2D fast-ion velocity distribution functions from synthetic collective Thomson scattering (CTS) and fast-ion D-alpha (FIDA) 1D measurements using a new reconstruction prescription. Contradicting conventional wisdom we demonstrate that one single 1D CTS or FIDA view suffices to compute accurate tomographies of arbitrary 2D functions under idealized conditions. Under simulated experimental conditions, single-view tomographies do not resemble the original fast-ion velocity distribution functions but nevertheless show their coarsest features. For CTS or FIDA systems with many simultaneous views on the same measurement volume, the resemblance improves with the number of available views, even if the resolution in each view is varied inversely proportional to the number of views, so that the total number of measurements in all views is the same. With a realistic four-view system, tomographies of a beam ion velocity distribution function at ASDEX Upgrade reproduce the general shape of the function and the location of the maxima at full and half injection energy of the beam ions. By applying our method to real many-view CTS or FIDA measurements, one could determine tomographies of 2D fast-ion velocity distribution functions experimentally

Size Doesn't Matter: Towards a More Inclusive Philosophy of Biology

notes: As the primary author, O’Malley drafted the paper, and gathered and analysed data (scientific papers and talks). Conceptual analysis was conducted by both authors.publication-status: Publishedtypes: ArticlePhilosophers of biology, along with everyone else, generally perceive life to fall into two broad categories, the microbes and macrobes, and then pay most of their attention to the latter. ‘Macrobe’ is the word we propose for larger life forms, and we use it as part of an argument for microbial equality. We suggest that taking more notice of microbes – the dominant life form on the planet, both now and throughout evolutionary history – will transform some of the philosophy of biology’s standard ideas on ontology, evolution, taxonomy and biodiversity. We set out a number of recent developments in microbiology – including biofilm formation, chemotaxis, quorum sensing and gene transfer – that highlight microbial capacities for cooperation and communication and break down conventional thinking that microbes are solely or primarily single-celled organisms. These insights also bring new perspectives to the levels of selection debate, as well as to discussions of the evolution and nature of multicellularity, and to neo-Darwinian understandings of evolutionary mechanisms. We show how these revisions lead to further complications for microbial classification and the philosophies of systematics and biodiversity. Incorporating microbial insights into the philosophy of biology will challenge many of its assumptions, but also give greater scope and depth to its investigations