Transport control by coherent zonal flows in the core/edge transitional regime

3D Braginskii turbulence simulations show that the energy flux in the core/edge transition region of a tokamak is strongly modulated - locally and on average - by radially propagating, nearly coherent sinusoidal or solitary zonal flows. The flows are geodesic acoustic modes (GAM), which are primarily driven by the Stringer-Winsor term. The flow amplitude together with the average anomalous transport sensitively depend on the GAM frequency and on the magnetic curvature acting on the flows, which could be influenced in a real tokamak, e.g., by shaping the plasma cross section. The local modulation of the turbulence by the flows and the excitation of the flows are due to wave-kinetic effects, which have been studied for the first time in a turbulence simulation.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures, submitted to PR

Fully electromagnetic nonlinear gyrokinetic equations for tokamak edge turbulence

An energy conserving set of the fully electromagnetic nonlinear gyrokinetic Vlasov equation and Maxwell's equations, which is applicable to both L-mode turbulence with large amplitude and H-mode turbulence in the presence of high E Χ B shear has been derived. The phase-space action variational Lie perturbation method ensures the preservation of the conservation laws of the underlying Vlasov-Maxwell system. Our generalized ordering takes ρ[sub ]i [\sub]<< ρϑ¡ ~ LE ~ Lp << R (here ρ[sub ]i [\sub] is the thermal ion Larmor radius and ρϑ¡ = [B over Bϑ] ρ[sub ]i [\sub]), as typically observed in the tokamak H-mode edge, with LE and Lp being the radial electric field and pressure gradient lengths. We take κ[sub ] perpendicular to[/sub] ρ[sub ]i [\sub] ~ 1 for generality, and keep the relative fluctuation amplitudes eδφ ⁄ Τ[sub ]i [\sub]~ δΒ ⁄ Β up to the second order. Extending the electrostatic theory in the presence of high E Χ B shear [Hahm, Phys. Plasmas 3, 4658 (1996)], contributions of electromagnetic fluctuations to the particle charge density and current are explicitly evaluated via pull-back transformation from the gyrocenter distribution function in the gyrokinetic Maxwell's equation

Shear-Flow Driven Current Filamentation: Two-Dimensional Magnetohydrodynamic Simulations

The process of current filamentation in permanently externally driven, initially globally ideal plasmas is investigated by means of two-dimensional Magnetohydrodynamic (MHD)-simulations. This situation is typical for astrophysical systems like jets, the interstellar and intergalactic medium where the dynamics is dominated by external forces. Two different cases are studied. In one case, the system is ideal permanently and dissipative processes are excluded. In the second case, a system with a current density dependent resistivity is considered. This resistivity is switched on self-consistently in current filaments and allows for local dissipation due to magnetic reconnection. Thus one finds tearing of current filaments and, besides, merging of filaments due to coalescence instabilities. Energy input and dissipation finally balance each other and the system reaches a state of constant magnetic energy in time.Comment: 32 Pages, 13 Figures. accepted, to appear in Physics of Plasmas (049012

On the dynamics of turbulent transport near marginal stability

A general methodology for describing the dynamics of transport near marginal stability is formulated. Marginal stability is a special case of the more general phenomenon of self-organized criticality. Simple, one field models of the dynamics of tokamak plasma self-organized criticality have been constructed, and include relevant features such as sheared mean flow and transport bifurcations. In such models, slow mode (i.e. large scale, low frequency transport events) correlation times determine the behavior of transport dynamics near marginal stability. To illustrate this, impulse response scaling exponents (z) and turbulent diffusivities (D) have been calculated for the minimal (Burgers) and sheared flow models. For the minimal model, z = 1 (indicating ballastic propagation) and D {approximately}(S{sub 0}{sup 2}){sup 1/3}, where S{sub 0}{sup 2} is the noise strength. With an identically structured noise spectrum and flow with shearing rate exceeding the ambient decorrelation rate for the largest scale transport events, diffusion is recovered with z = 2 and D {approximately} (S{sub 0}{sup 2}){sup 3/5}. This indicates a qualitative change in the dynamics, as well as a reduction in losses. These results are consistent with recent findings from {rho} scaling scans. Several tokamak transport experiments are suggested

ELM triggering conditions for the integrated modeling of H-mode plasmas

Recent advances in the integrated modeling of ELMy H-mode plasmas are presented. A model for the H-mode pedestal and for the triggering of ELMs predicts the height, width, and shape of the H-mode pedestal and the frequency and width of ELMs. Formation of the pedestal and the L-H transition is the direct result of ExB flow shear suppression of anomalous transport. The periodic ELM crashes are triggered by either the ballooning or peeling MHD instabilities. The BALOO, DCON, and ELITE ideal MHD stability codes are used to derive a new parametric expression for the peeling-ballooning threshold. The new dependence for the peeling-ballooning threshold is implemented in the ASTRA transport code. Results of integrated modeling of DIII-D like discharges are presented and compared with experimental observations. The results from the ideal MHD stability codes are compared with results from the resistive MHD stability code NIMROD.Comment: 12th International Congress on Plasma Physics, 25-29 October 2004, Nice (France

Electronic structure of crystalline binary and ternary Cd-Te-O compounds

The electronic structure of crystalline CdTe, CdO, $\alpha$-TeO$_2$, CdTeO$_3$ and Cd$_3$TeO$_6$ is studied by means of first principles calculations. The band structure, total and partial density of states, and charge densities are presented. For $\alpha$-TeO$_2$ and CdTeO$_3$, Density Functional Theory within the Local Density Approximation (LDA) correctly describes the insulating character of these compounds. In the first four compounds, LDA underestimates the optical bandgap by roughly 1 eV. Based on this trend, we predict an optical bandgap of 1.7 eV for Cd$_3$TeO$_6$. This material shows an isolated conduction band with a low effective mass, thus explaining its semiconducting character observed recently. In all these oxides, the top valence bands are formed mainly from the O 2p electrons. On the other hand, the binding energy of the Cd 4d band, relative to the valence band maximum, in the ternary compounds is smaller than in CdTe and CdO.Comment: 13 pages, 15 figures, 2 tables. Accepted in Phys Rev

Status of Continuum Edge Gyrokinetic Code Physics Development *

We are developing an edge gyro-kinetic continuum simulation code to study the boundary plasma over a region extending from inside the H-mode pedestal across the separatrix to the divertor plates. A 4-D (ψ, θ, , µ) version of this code is presently being implemented, en route to a full 5-D version. A set of gyrokinetic equations[1] are discretized on computational grid which incorporates X-point divertor geometry. The present implementation is a Method of Lines approach where the phase-space derivatives are discretized with finite differences and implicit backwards differencing formulas are used to advance the system in time. A fourth order upwinding algorithm is used for particle cross-field drifts, parallel streaming, and acceleration. Boundary conditions at conducting material surfaces are implemented on the plasma side of the sheath. The Poisson-like equation is solved using GMRES with multi-grid preconditioner from HYPRE. A nonlinear Fokker-Planck collision operator from STELLA[2] in (v , v ⊥ ) has been streamlined and integrated into the gyro-kinetic package using the same implicit Newton-Krylov solver and interpolating F and dF/dt| coll to/from ( , µ) space. With our 4D code we compute the ion thermal flux, ion parallel velocity, self-consistent electric field, and geo-acoustic oscillations, which we compare with standard neoclassical theory for core plasma parameters; and we study the transition from collisional to collisionless end-loss. In the real X-point geometry, we find that the particles are trapped near outside midplane and in the X-point regions due to the magnetic configurations. The sizes of banana orbits are comparable to the pedestal width and/or the SOL width for energetic trapped particles. The effect of the real X-point geometry and edge plasma conditions on standard neoclassical theory will be evaluated, including a comparison of our 4D code with other kinetic neoclassical codes (such as NCLAS

Composite Skyrme Model with Vector Mesons

We study the composite Skyrme model, proposed by Cheung and G\"{u}rsey, introducing vector mesons in a chiral Lagrangian. We calculate the static properties of baryons and compare with results obtained from models without vector mesons.Comment: LaTeX, 9 pages, 3 figures, to be published in Phys. Rev.