ALBERT

Description: In this paper, we detail the diagnostic technique used to infer the spatially resolved electron temperatures and densities in experiments dedicated to investigate the generation of magnetically collimated plasma jets. It is shown that the relative intensities of the resonance transitions in emitting He-like ions can be used to measure the temperature in such recombining plasmas. The intensities of these transitions are sensitive to the plasma density in the range of 10 16 –10 20  cm −3 and to plasma temperature ranges from 10 to 100 eV for ions with a nuclear charge Z n  ∼ 10. We show how detailed calculations of the emissivity of F VIII ions allow to determine the parameters of the plasma jets that were created using ELFIE ns laser facility (Ecole Polytechnique, France). The diagnostic and analysis technique detailed here can be applied in a broader context than the one of this study, i.e., to diagnose any recombining plasma containing He-like fluorine ions.

Description: We discuss the theory of the formation of a quasi-transverse collisionless shock wave in a multi-component plasma. We show that in a plasma with a significant admixture of cold heavy ions, a specific MHD mode can be excited. This mode plays the same role for the collisionless shock formation as a quasi-transverse fast magnetosonic wave in a plasma with one sort of ions. As a result of this mode excitation, the solar wind velocity threshold for the formation of a collisionless shock becomes significantly less than in the case of a plasma with only light ions. We derive a nonlinear differential equation which describes a shock wave when perturbations become strong enough. Based on our theoretical results, we argue that upstream of the magnetic pile-up region of Mars or Venus, an additional shock wave may be formed.

Description: The weakly coherent mode (WCM) in I-mode has been studied by a six-field two-fluid model based on the Braginskii equations under the BOUT++ framework for the first time. The calculations indicate that a tokamak pedestal exhibiting a WCM is linearly unstable to drift Alfven wave (DAW) instabilities and the resistive ballooning mode. The nonlinear simulation shows promising agreement with the experimental measurements of the WCM. The shape of the density spectral and location of the spectral peak of the dominant toroidal number mode n  = 20 agrees with the experimental data from reflectometry. The simulated mode propagates in electron diamagnetic direction is consistent with the results from the magnetic probes in the laboratory frame, a large ratio of particle to heat diffusivity is consistent with the distinctive experimental feature of I-mode, and the value of the simulated χ e at the edge is in the range of experimental errors of χ eff from the experiment. The prediction of the WCM shows that free energy is mainly provided by the electron pressure gradient, which gives guidance for pursuing future I-mode studies.

Description: Microwave linear plasmas sustained by surface waves have attracted much attention due to the potential abilities to generate large-scale and uniform non-equilibrium plasmas. An external magnetic field was generally applied to enhance and stabilize plasma sources because the magnetic field decreased the electron losses on the wall. The effects of magnetic field on the generation and propagation mechanisms of the microwave plasma were tentatively investigated based on a 2-D numerical model combining a coupled system of Maxwell's equations and continuity equations. The mobility of electrons and effective electric conductivity of the plasma were considered as a full tensor in the presence of magnetic field. Numerical results indicate that both cases of magnetic field in the axial-direction and radial-direction benefit the generation of a high-density plasma; the former one allows the microwave to propagate longer in the axis direction compared to the latter one. The time-averaged power flow density and the amplitude of the electric field on the inner rod of coaxial waveguide attenuate with the propagation of the microwave for both cases of with and without external magnetic field. The attenuation becomes smaller in the presence of appropriately higher axial-direction magnetic field, which allows more microwave energies to transmit along the axial direction. Meanwhile, the anisotropic properties of the plasma, like electron mobility, in the presence of the magnetic field confine more charged particles in the direction of the magnetic field line.

Description: Suppression of diamagnetism in a partially ionized plasma with high beta was experimentally investigated by the use of Langmuir and Hall sensor probes, focusing on a neutrals pressure effect. The plasma beta, which is the ratio of plasma to vacuum magnetic pressures, varied from ∼1% to 〉100% while the magnetic field varied from ∼120 G to ∼1 G. Here, a uniform magnetized argon plasma was operated mostly in an inductive mode, using a helicon plasma source of the Large Helicon Plasma Device [S. Shinohara et al ., Phys. Plasmas 16 , 057104 (2009)] with a diameter of 738 mm and an axial length of 4860 mm. Electron density varied from 5 × 10 15  m −3 to

Description: As usual cylindrical hohlraum with double laser ring cones may lead to serious laser-plasma interaction, such as the simulated Raman scatter and cross-beam energy transfer effect, spherical hohlraum with octahedral 6 Laser Entrance Holes (LEHs) and single cone laser beams, was investigated and reported to have a consistent high radiation symmetry during the whole implosion process. However, it has several potential challenges such as the smaller space left for diagnosis and the assembly of centrally located capsule. In this paper, based on the view-factor model, we investigate the radiation symmetry and the drive temperature on the capsule located in the spherical hohlraum with tetrahedral 4 LEHs and single cone laser beams, since there is more available space for laser disposition and diagnosis. Then, such target is optimized on the laser beam pointing direction to achieve a high radiation performance, i.e., the radiation symmetry and drive temperature on the capsule. Finally, an optimal spherical hohlraum with optimal laser beam pointing has been demonstrated and compared with the spherical hohlraum with octahedral 6 LEHs. The resulting radiation symmetry and the drive temperature shows that it has almost a similar radiation symmetry (the radiation asymmetry variation is no more than 0.2%), and higher drive temperature (the temperature has been increased by 1.73%, and an additional 133 kJ energy of 2 MJ energy for fusion can be saved).

Description: The obliquely nonlinear acoustic solitary propagation in a relativistically quantum magnetized electron-positron (e-p) plasma in the presence of the external magnetic field as well as the stationary ions for neutralizing the plasma background was studied. By considering the dynamic of the fluid e-p quantum and by using the quantum hydrodynamics model and the standard reductive perturbation technique, the Zakharov-Kuznetsov (ZK) equation is derived for small but finite amplitude waves and the solitary wave solution for the parameters relevant to dense astrophysical objects such as white dwarf stars is obtained. The numerical results show that the relativistic effects lead to propagate the electrostatic bell shape structures in quantum e-p plasmas like those in classical pair-ion or pair species for relativistic plasmas. It is also observed that by increasing the relativistic effects, the amplitude and width of the e-p acoustic solitary wave will decrease. In addition, the wave amplitude increases as positron density decreases in magnetized e-p plasmas. It is indicated that by increasing the strength of the magnetic field, the width of the soliton reduces and it becomes sharper. At the end, we have analytically and numerically shown that the pulse soliton solution of the ZK equation is unstable and have traced the dependence of the instability growth rate on electron density. It is found that by considering the relativistic pressure, the instability of the soliton pulse can be reduced. The results can be useful to study the obliquely nonlinear propagation of small amplitude localized structures in magnetized quantum e-p plasmas and be applicable to understand the particle and energy transport mechanism in compact stars such as white dwarfs, where the effects of relativistic electron degeneracy become important.

Description: The interchange dynamics and velocity scaling of blob-like plasma filaments are investigated using a two-field reduced fluid model. For incompressible flows due to buoyancy, the maximum velocity is proportional to the square root of the relative amplitude and the square root of its cross-field size. For compressible flows in a non-uniform magnetic field, this square root scaling only holds for ratios of amplitudes to cross-field sizes above a certain threshold value. For small amplitudes and large sizes, the maximum velocity is proportional to the filament amplitude. The acceleration is proportional to the amplitude and independent of the cross-field size in all regimes. This is demonstrated by means of numerical simulations and explained by the energy integrals satisfied by the model.

Description: We demonstrate the effect of preheat, hydrodynamic mix and vorticity on the adiabat of the deuterium-tritium (DT) fuel in fusion capsule experiments. We show that the adiabat of the DT fuel increases resulting from hydrodynamic mixing due to the phenomenon of entropy of mixture. An upper limit of mix, M clean / M DT  ≥ 0.98, is found necessary to keep the DT fuel on a low adiabat. We demonstrate in this study that the use of a high adiabat for the DT fuel in theoretical analysis and with the aid of 1D code simulations could explain some aspects of 3D effects and mix in capsule implosion. Furthermore, we can infer from our physics model and the observed neutron images the adiabat of the DT fuel in the capsule and the amount of mix produced on the hot spot.

Description: An existing model of collisionless particle, momentum, and energy ion orbit loss from the edge region of a diverted tokamak plasma has been extended. The extended ion orbit loss calculation now treats losses of both thermal ions and fast neutral beam injection ions and includes realistic flux surface and magnetic field representations, particles returning to the plasma from the scrape off layer, and treatment of x-transport and x-loss. More realistic flux surface geometry allows the intrinsic rotation calculation to predict a peaking in the profile closer to the separatrix, which is consistent with experiment; and particle tracking calculations reveal a new mechanism of “x-transport pumping,” which predicts larger ion losses when coupling conventional ion orbit loss and x-loss mechanisms, though still dominated by conventional ion orbit loss. Sensitivity to these ion orbit loss model enhancements is illustrated by fluid predictions of neoclassical rotation velocities and radial electric field profiles, with and without the enhancements.