ALBERT

Description: The dynamics of the magnetic relaxation process during the sustainment of spheromak configurations at different helicity injection rates is studied. The three-dimensional activity is recovered using time-dependent resistive magnetohydrodynamic simulations. A cylindrical flux conserver with concentric electrodes is used to model configurations driven by a magnetized coaxial gun. Magnetic helicity is injected by tangential boundary flows. Different regimes of sustainment are identified and characterized in terms of the safety factor profile. The spatial and temporal behavior of fluctuations is described. The dynamo action is shown to be in close agreement with existing experimental data. These results are relevant to the design and operation of helicity injected devices, as well as to basic understanding of the plasma relaxation mechanism in quasi-steady state.

Description: The present experiments were performed on the PF-1000 plasma focus device at a current of 2 MA with the deuterium injected from the gas-puff placed in the axis of the anode face. The XUV frames showed, in contrast with the interferograms, the fine structure: filaments and spots up to 1 mm diameter. In the deuterium filling, the short filaments are registered mainly in the region of the internal plasmoidal structures and their number correlates with the intensity of neutron production. The longer filamentary structure was recorded close to the anode after the constriction decay. The long curve-like filaments with spots were registered in the big bubble formed after the pinch phase in the head of the umbrella shape of the plasma sheath. Filaments can indicate the filamentary structure of the current in the pinch. Together with the filaments, small compact balls a few mm in diameter were registered by both interferometry and XUV frame pictures. They emerge out of the dense column and their life-time can be greater than hundreds of ns.

Description: The radiation pressure acceleration of protons in the interaction of Gaussian laser pulses and surface modulated targets is examined by multi-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations. It is shown that strong longitudinal quasi-static magnetic field is generated on the modulated surface of the target, which significantly enhances the transverse diffusion of electrons. This is beneficial for suppressing the transverse Rayleigh-Taylor instability. Finally, the surface of the accelerated proton beams becomes smoother than that in the case of the planar target, and a final mono-energetic proton beam is obtained by using the surface modulated target.

Description: The dependence of divertor asymmetry and scrape-off layer (SOL) flow on heating power has been investigated in the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST). Divertor plasma exhibits an outboard-enhanced in-out asymmetry in heat flux in lower single null configuration for in reversed (ion ∇ B drift direction toward the upper X-point) field directions. Upper single null exhibits an inboard-favored asymmetry in low heating power condition, while exhibits an outboard-favored asymmetry when increasing the heating power. Double null has the strongest in-out asymmetry in heat flux, favoring the outer divertor. The in-out asymmetry ratios of q t , out / q t , in and P out / P total increase with the power across the separatrix P loss , which is probably induced by the enhanced radial particle transport due to a large pressure gradient. The characteristics of the measured SOL parallel flow under various discharge conditions are consistent with the Pfirsch-Schlüter (PS) flow with the parallel Mach number M ∥ decreasing with the line averaged density but increasing with P loss , in the same direction as the PS flow. The contributions of both poloidal E × B drift and parallel flow on poloidal particle transport in SOL on EAST are also assessed.

Description: Magnetic islands have been implemented in the gyrokinetic toroidal code to study the effects of the islands on microturbulence. The pressure profile flattening is verified in the simulation with the islands. Simulations of ion temperature gradient instability find that different toroidal modes are linearly coupled together and that toroidal spectra become broader when the island width increases. The real frequencies and growth rates of different toroidal modes approach each other with the averaged value independent of the island width. The linear mode structures are enhanced at the island separatrices and weakened at the island centers, consistent with the flattening of the pressure profile inside the islands.

Description: A study is presented for the oblique propagation of ion acoustic cnoidal waves in a magnetized plasma consisting of cold ions and two temperature superthermal electrons modelled by kappa-type distributions. Using the reductive perturbation method, the nonlinear Korteweg de-Vries equation is derived, which further gives the solutions with a special type of cnoidal elliptical functions. Both compressive and rarefactive structures are found for these cnoidal waves. Nonlinear periodic cnoidal waves are explained in terms of plasma parameters depicting the Sagdeev potential and the phase curves. It is found that the density ratio of hot electrons to ions μ significantly modifies compressive/refractive wave structures. Furthermore, the combined effects of superthermality of cold and hot electrons κ c , κ h , cold to hot electron temperature ratio σ , angle of propagation and ion cyclotron frequency ω ci have been studied in detail to analyze the height and width of compressive/refractive cnoidal waves. The findings in the present study could have important implications in understanding the physics of electrostatic wave structures in the Saturn's magnetosphere where two temperature superthermal electrons are present.

Description: We report on the production of metal ions of magnesium and zinc in the beam plasma formed by a forevacuum-pressure electron source. Magnesium and zinc vapor were generated by electron beam evaporation from a crucible and subsequently ionized by electron impact from the e-beam itself. Both gaseous and metallic plasmas were separately produced and characterized using a modified RGA-100 quadrupole mass-spectrometer. The fractional composition of metal isotopes in the plasma corresponds to their fractional natural abundance.

Description: To better understand the role of residual electrons in the repeatability of an atmospheric pressure plasma plume, the characteristics of a helium plasma jet from the 1st, 2nd,… until the repeatable discharge pulse are investigated for the first time. It's found that the longest plasma plume is achieved in the 1st discharge pulse. The length of the plasma plume becomes shorter and shorter and reaches a constant value in the 3rd discharge pulse and keeps the same for the following pulses. The dynamics of the 1st discharge pulse show that the plasma bullet appears random in nature. Two photomultiplier tubes are used to distinguish the two potential factors that could result in the stochastic dynamics of the plasma bullet, i.e., stochastic ignition of the plasma and the stochastic propagation velocity. The results show that the stochastic propagation velocity occurs only in the 1st and the 2nd discharge pulses, while the stochastic ignition of the plasma presents until the 100th pulse. The dynamics of the plasma propagation become repeatable after about 100 pulses. Detail analysis shows that the repeatability of plasma bullet is due to the residual electrons density. The residual electron density of 10 9  cm −3 or higher is needed for repeatable discharges mode.

Description: We present a full two-fluid magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) description for a completely ionized hydrogen plasma, retaining the effects of the Hall current, electron pressure, and electron inertia. According to this description, each plasma species introduces a new spatial scale: the ion inertial length λ i and the electron inertial length λ e , which are not present in the traditional MHD description. In the present paper, we seek for possible changes in the energy power spectrum in fully developed turbulent regimes, using numerical simulations of the two-fluid equations in two-and-a-half dimensions. We have been able to reproduce different scaling laws in different spectral ranges, as it has been observed in the solar wind for the magnetic energy spectrum. At the smallest wavenumbers where plain MHD is valid, we obtain an inertial range following a Kolmogorov k −5∕3 law. For intermediate wavenumbers such that λ i − 1 ≪ k ≪ λ e − 1 , the spectrum is modified to a k −7∕3 power-law, as has also been obtained for Hall-MHD neglecting electron inertia terms. When electron inertia is retained, a new spectral region given by k 〉 λ e − 1 arises. The power spectrum for magnetic energy in this region is given by a k −11∕3 power law. Finally, when the terms of electron inertia are retained, we study the self-consistent electric field. Our results are discussed and compared with those obtained in the solar wind observations and previous simulations.

Description: A novel mechanism of collisionless heating in large planar arrays of small inductive coils operated at radio frequencies is presented. In contrast to the well-known case of non-local heating related to the transversal conductivity, when the electrons move perpendicular to the planar coil, we investigate the problem of electrons moving in a plane parallel to the coils. Two types of periodic structures are studied. Resonance velocities where heating is efficient are calculated analytically by solving the Vlasov equation. Certain scaling parameters are identified. The concept is further investigated by a single particle simulation based on the ergodic principle and combined with a Monte Carlo code allowing for collisions with Argon atoms. Resonances, energy exchange, and distribution functions are obtained. The analytical results are confirmed by the numerical simulation. Pressure and electric field dependences are studied. Stochastic heating is found to be most efficient when the electron mean free path exceeds the size of a single coil cell. Then the mean energy increases approximately exponentially with the electric field amplitude.

Description: The collision-less transfer of momentum and energy from explosive debris plasma to magnetized background plasma is a salient feature of various astrophysical and space environments. While much theoretical and computational work has investigated collision-less coupling mechanisms and relevant parameters, an experimental validation of the results demands the measurement of the complex, collective electric fields associated with debris-background plasma interaction. Emission spectroscopy offers a non-interfering diagnostic of electric fields via the Stark effect. A unique experiment at the University of California, Los Angeles, that combines the Large Plasma Device (LAPD) and the Phoenix laser facility has investigated the marginally super-Alfvénic, quasi-perpendicular expansion of a laser-produced carbon (C) debris plasma through a preformed, magnetized helium (He) background plasma via emission spectroscopy. Spectral profiles of the He II 468.6 nm line measured at the maximum extent of the diamagnetic cavity are observed to intensify, broaden, and develop equally spaced modulations in response to the explosive C debris, indicative of an energetic electron population and strong oscillatory electric fields. The profiles are analyzed via time-dependent Stark effect models corresponding to single-mode and multi-mode monochromatic (single frequency) electric fields, yielding temporally resolved magnitudes and frequencies. The proximity of the measured frequencies to the expected electron plasma frequency suggests the development of the electron beam-plasma instability, and a simple saturation model demonstrates that the measured magnitudes are feasible provided that a sufficiently fast electron population is generated during C debris–He background interaction. Potential sources of the fast electrons, which likely correspond to collision-less coupling mechanisms, are briefly considered.

Description: It is shown that co-linear injection of electrons or positrons into the wakefield of the self-modulating particle beam is possible and ensures high energy gain. The witness beam must co-propagate with the tail part of the driver, since the plasma wave phase velocity there can exceed the light velocity, which is necessary for efficient acceleration. If the witness beam is many wakefield periods long, then the trapped charge is limited by beam loading effects. The initial trapping is better for positrons, but at the acceleration stage a considerable fraction of positrons is lost from the wave. For efficient trapping of electrons, the plasma boundary must be sharp, with the density transition region shorter than several centimeters. Positrons are not susceptible to the initial plasma density gradient.

Description: The foundational theory for dusty plasmas is the dust charging theory that provides the dust potential and charge arising from the dust interaction with a plasma. The most widely used dust charging theory for negatively charged dust particles is the so-called orbital motion limited (OML) theory, which predicts the dust potential and heat collection accurately for a variety of applications, but was previously found to be incapable of evaluating the dust charge and plasma response in any situation. Here, we report a revised OML formulation that is able to predict the plasma response and hence the dust charge. Numerical solutions of the new OML model show that the widely used Whipple approximation of dust charge-potential relationship agrees with OML theory in the limit of small dust radius compared with plasma Debye length, but incurs large (order-unity) deviation from the OML prediction when the dust size becomes comparable with or larger than plasma Debye length. This latter case is expected for the important application of dust particles in a tokamak plasma.

Description: Using the ideal magnetohydrodynamic model, we calculate the temporal evolution of initial ripples on the boundaries of a planar plasma slab that is subjected to the magneto-Rayleigh-Taylor instability. The plasma slab consists of three regions. We assume that in each region the plasma density is constant with an arbitrary value and the magnetic field is also constant with an arbitrary magnitude and an arbitrary direction parallel to the interfaces. Thus, the instability may be driven by a combination of magnetic pressure and kinetic pressure. The general dispersion relation is derived, together with the feedthrough factor between the two interfaces. The temporal evolution is constructed from the superposition of the eigenmodes. Previously established results are recovered in the various limits. Numerical examples are given on the temporal evolution of ripples on the interfaces of the finite plasma slab.

Description: Gas-puff Z-pinch experiments were conducted on the 1 MA, 200 ns pulse duration Cornell Beam Research Accelerator (COBRA) pulsed power generator in order to achieve an understanding of the dynamics and instability development in the imploding and stagnating plasma. The triple-nozzle gas-puff valve, pre-ionizer, and load hardware are described. Specific diagnostics for the gas-puff experiments, including a Planar Laser Induced Fluorescence system for measuring the radial neutral density profiles along with a Laser Shearing Interferometer and Laser Wavefront Analyzer for electron density measurements, are also described. The results of a series of experiments using two annular argon (Ar) and/or neon (Ne) gas shells (puff-on-puff) with or without an on- (or near-) axis wire are presented. For all of these experiments, plenum pressures were adjusted to hold the radial mass density profile as similar as possible. Initial implosion stability studies were performed using various combinations of the heavier (Ar) and lighter (Ne) gasses. Implosions with Ne in the outer shell and Ar in the inner were more stable than the opposite arrangement. Current waveforms can be adjusted on COBRA and it was found that the particular shape of the 200 ns current pulse affected on the duration and diameter of the stagnated pinched column and the x-ray yield.

Description: During July 2012, 150 almost identical H-mode plasmas were consecutively created in the Joint European Torus, providing a combined total of approximately 8 minutes of steady-state plasma with 15 000 Edge Localised Modes (ELMs). In principle, each of those 15 000 ELMs are statistically equivalent. Here, the changes in edge density and plasma energy associated with those ELMs are explored, using the spikes in Beryllium II (527 nm) radiation as an indicator for the onset of an ELM. Clearly different timescales are observed during the ELM process. Edge temperature falls over a 2 ms timescale, edge density and pressure fall over a 5 ms timescale, and there is an additional 10 ms timescale that is consistent with a resistive relaxation of the plasma's edge. The statistical properties of the energy and density losses due to the ELMs are explored. For these plasmas the ELM energy (δ E ) is found to be approximately independent of the time between ELMs, despite the average ELM energy ( 〈 δ E 〉 ) and average ELM frequency ( f ) being consistent with the scaling of 〈 δ E 〉 ∝ 1 / f . Instead, beyond the first 0.02 s of waiting time between ELMs, the energy losses due to individual ELMs are found to be statistically the same. Surprisingly no correlation is found between the energies of consecutive ELMs either. A weak link is found between the density drop and the ELM waiting time. Consequences of these results for ELM control and modelling are discussed.

Description: The compression of a relativistic Gaussian laser pulse in a magnetized plasma is investigated. By considering relativistic nonlinearity and using non-linear Schrödinger equation with paraxial approximation, a second-order differential equation is obtained for the pulse width parameter (in time) to demonstrate the longitudinal pulse compression. The compression of laser pulse in a magnetized plasma can be observed by the numerical solution of the equation for the pulse width parameter. The effects of magnetic field and chirping are investigated. It is shown that in the presence of magnetic field and negative initial chirp, compression of pulse is significantly enhanced.

Description: Nonlinear saturation amplitudes (NSAs) of the first two harmonics in classical Rayleigh-Taylor instability (RTI) in cylindrical geometry for arbitrary Atwood numbers have been analytically investigated considering nonlinear corrections up to the fourth-order. The NSA of the fundamental mode is defined as the linear (purely exponential) growth amplitude of the fundamental mode at the saturation time when the growth of the fundamental mode (first harmonic) is reduced by 10% in comparison to its corresponding linear growth, and the NSA of the second harmonic can be obtained in the same way. The analytic results indicate that the effects of the initial radius of the interface ( r 0 ) and the Atwood number ( A ) play an important role in the NSAs of the first two harmonics in cylindrical RTI. On the one hand, the NSA of the fundamental mode first increases slightly and then decreases quickly with increasing A . For given A , the smaller the r 0 / λ (with λ perturbation wavelength) is, the larger the NSA of the fundamental mode is. When r 0 / λ is large enough ( r 0 ≫ λ ), the NSA of the fundamental mode is reduced to the prediction of previous literatures within the framework of third-order perturbation theory [J. W. Jacobs and I. Catton, J. Fluid Mech. 187 , 329 (1988); S. W. Haan, Phys. Fluids B 3 , 2349 (1991)]. On the other hand, the NSA of the second harmonic first decreases quickly with increasing A , reaching a minimum, and then increases slowly. Furthermore, the r 0 can reduce the NSA of the second harmonic for arbitrary A at r 0 ≲ 2 λ while increase it for A   ≲   0.6 at r 0 ≳ 2 λ . Thus, it should be included in applications where the NSA has a role, such as inertial confinement fusion ignition target design.

Description: The δ   f particle-in-cell code GEM is used to study the transport “shortfall” problem of gyrokinetic simulations. In local simulations, the GEM results confirm the previously reported simulation results of DIII-D [Holland et al. , Phys. Plasmas 16 , 052301 (2009)] and Alcator C-Mod [Howard et al. , Nucl. Fusion 53 , 123011 (2013)] tokamaks with the continuum code GYRO. Namely, for DIII-D the simulations closely predict the ion heat flux at the core, while substantially underpredict transport towards the edge; while for Alcator C-Mod, the simulations show agreement with the experimental values of ion heat flux, at least within the range of experimental error. Global simulations are carried out for DIII-D L-mode plasmas to study the effect of edge turbulence on the outer core ion heat transport. The edge turbulence enhances the outer core ion heat transport through turbulence spreading. However, this edge turbulence spreading effect is not enough to explain the transport underprediction.

Description: In the present work, we extend results of a previous paper [Peter et al. , Phys. Plasmas 20 , 12 3104 (2013)] and develop a semi-analytical model to account for thermal effects on the nonlinear dynamics of the electron beam in free-electron lasers. We relax the condition of a cold electron beam but still use the concept of compressibility, now associated with a warm beam model, to evaluate the time scale for saturation and the peak laser intensity in high-gain regimes. Although vanishing compressibilites and the associated divergent densities are absent in warm models, a series of discontinuities in the electron density precede the saturation process. We show that full wave-particle simulations agree well with the predictions of the model.

Description: Particle pairing in a complex plasma was experimentally studied with the emphasis on pair spatial extent and stability. Micron-size particles were suspended in the (pre)sheath area above the lower electrode in a capacitively coupled radio-frequency discharge in argon. They formed vertical pairs due to the ion wakes created by the flow of ions past particles. We discuss the confinement mechanism for the lower particle, resulting from a combination of the wake field and the field of non-uniform sheath. A model of particle pairs is proposed, which provides good description for the dependence of pair size and stability on experimental parameters.

Description: Significantly collimated fast electron beam with a divergence angle 10° (FWHM) is observed when an ultra-intense laser pulse ( I  = 10 14  W/cm 2 , 300 fs) irradiates a uniform critical density plasma. The uniform plasma is created through the ionization of an ultra-low density (5 mg/c.c.) plastic foam by X-ray burst from the interaction of intense laser ( I  = 10 14  W/cm 2 , 600 ps) with a thin Cu foil. 2D Particle-In-Cell (PIC) simulation well reproduces the collimated electron beam with a strong magnetic field in the region of the laser pulse propagation. To understand the physical mechanism of the collimation, we calculate energetic electron motion in the magnetic field obtained from the 2D PIC simulation. As the results, the strong magnetic field (300 MG) collimates electrons with energy over a few MeV. This collimation mechanism may attract attention in many applications such as electron acceleration, electron microscope and fast ignition of laser fusion.

Description: In this work, stochastic behavior of atmospheric pressure dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) has been investigated. The experiment is performed in a DBD reactor consisting of a pair of stainless steel parallel plate electrodes powered by a 50 Hz ac high voltage source. Current pulse amplitude distributions for different space gaps and the time separation between consecutive current pulses are studied. A probability distribution function is proposed to predict the experimental distribution function for the current pulse amplitudes and the occurrence of the transition regime of the pulse distribution. Breakdown voltage at different positions on the dielectric surface is suggested to be stochastic in nature. The simulated results based on the proposed distribution function agreed well with the experimental results and able to predict the regime of transition voltage. This model would be useful for the understanding of stochastic behaviors of DBD and the design of DBD device for effective operation and applications.

Description: We investigate the dispersion relation for low frequency electromagnetic waves propagating parallel to the ambient magnetic field, considering that the velocity distributions of ions and electrons can be either bi-Maxwellian of product bi-kappa distributions. The effect of the anisotropy and non-thermal features associated to the product-bi-kappa distributions on the firehose instability are numerically investigated. The general conclusion to be drawn from the results obtained is that the increase in non-thermal features which is consequence of the decrease of the κ indexes in the ion distribution contributes to increase the instability in magnitude and wave number range, in comparison with bi-Maxwellian distributions with similar temperature anisotropy, and that the increase of non-thermal features in the electron distribution contributes to the quenching of the instability, which is nevertheless driven by the anisotropy in the ion distribution. Significant differences between results obtained either considering product-bi-kappa distributions or bi-kappa distributions are also reported.

Description: The effects of shock dynamics on compressibility of indirect-drive ignition-scale surrogate implosions, CH shells filled with D 3 He gas, have been studied using charged-particle spectroscopy. Spectral measurements of D 3 He protons produced at the shock-bang time probe the shock dynamics and in-flight characteristics of an implosion. The proton shock yield is found to vary by over an order of magnitude. A simple model relates the observed yield to incipient hot-spot adiabat, suggesting that implosions with rapid radiation-power increase during the main drive pulse may have a 2× higher hot-spot adiabat, potentially reducing compressibility. A self-consistent 1-D implosion model was used to infer the areal density ( ρR ) and the shell center-of-mass radius ( R cm ) from the downshift of the shock-produced D 3 He protons. The observed ρR at shock-bang time is substantially higher for implosions, where the laser drive is on until near the compression bang time (“short-coast”), while longer-coasting implosions have lower ρR . This corresponds to a much larger temporal difference between the shock- and compression-bang time in the long-coast implosions (∼800 ps) than in the short-coast (∼400 ps); this will be verified with a future direct bang-time diagnostic. This model-inferred differential bang time contradicts radiation-hydrodynamic simulations, which predict constant 700–800 ps differential independent of coasting time; this result is potentially explained by uncertainties in modeling late-time ablation drive on the capsule. In an ignition experiment, an earlier shock-bang time resulting in an earlier onset of shell deceleration, potentially reducing compression and, thus, fuel ρR .

Description: In this work, the low frequency waves and gravitational (Jeans) instability of a homogeneous gyrotropic, magnetized, quantum plasma is investigated using the quantum magnetohydrodynamic and Chew-Goldberger-Low fluid models. An analytical dispersion relation for the considered system is obtained solving the linearized perturbations equations employing the Fourier transformation. The onset criterion of the “firehose” instability is retained in parallel propagation, which is unaffected due to the presence of quantum corrections. The gravitational mode modified by the quantum corrections is obtained separately along with the “firehose” mode. In perpendicular propagation, the quantum diffraction term is coupled with the Jeans and Alfven modes whereas in parallel propagation, the Alfven mode does not contribute to the dispersion characteristics as it leads to the “firehose” instability criterion in terms of quantum pressure anisotropy. The stabilizing influences of the quantum diffraction parameter and magnetic field on the growth rates of Jeans instability are examined. It is observed that the growth rate stabilizes much faster in transverse mode due to Alfven stabilization as compared to the longitudinal mode of propagation.

Description: Despite its affordability, the krypton Hall-effect thruster in applications always had problems in regard to performance. The reason for this degradation is studied from the perspective of the near-wall conductivity of electrons. Using the particle-in-cell method, the sheath oscillation characteristics and its effect on near-wall conduction are compared in the krypton and xenon Hall-effect thrusters both with wall material composed of BNSiO 2 . Comparing these two thrusters, the sheath in the krypton-plasma thruster will oscillate at low electron temperatures. The near-wall conduction current is only produced by collisions between electrons and wall, thereby causing a deficiency in the channel current. The sheath displays spatial oscillations only at high electron temperature; electrons are then reflected to produce the non-oscillation conduction current needed for the krypton-plasma thruster. However, it is accompanied with intensified oscillations.

Description: In toroidally confined plasmas, the Grad-Shafranov equation, in general, a non-linear partial differential equation, describes the hydromagnetic equilibrium of the system. This equation becomes linear when the kinetic pressure is proportional to the poloidal magnetic flux and the squared poloidal current is a quadratic function of it. In this work, the eigenvalue of the associated homogeneous equation is related with the safety factor on the magnetic axis, the plasma beta, and the Shafranov shift; then, the adjustable parameters of the particular solution are bounded through physical constrains. The poloidal magnetic flux becomes a linear superposition of independent solutions and its parameters are adjusted with a non-linear fitting algorithm. This method is used to find hydromagnetic equilibria with normal and reversed magnetic shear and defined values of the elongation, triangularity, aspect-ratio, and X-point(s). The resultant toroidal and poloidal beta, the safety factor at the 95% flux surface, and the plasma current are in agreement with usual experimental values for high beta discharges and the model can be used locally to describe reversed magnetic shear equilibria.

Description: Geodesic acoustic mode in anisotropic tokamak plasmas is theoretically analyzed by using double adiabatic model and gyro-kinetic equation. The bi-Maxwellian distribution function for guiding-center ions is assumed to obtain a self-consistent form, yielding pressures satisfying the magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) anisotropic equilibrium condition. The double adiabatic model gives the dispersion relation of geodesic acoustic mode (GAM), which agrees well with the one derived from gyro-kinetic equation. The GAM frequency increases with the ratio of pressures, p ⊥ / p ∥ , and the Landau damping rate is dramatically decreased by p ⊥ / p ∥ . MHD result shows a low-frequency zonal flow existing for all p ⊥ / p ∥ , while according to the kinetic dispersion relation, no low-frequency branch exists for p ⊥ / p ∥ ≳ 2.

Description: Nanoparticles are grown from the sputtering of a tungsten cathode in a direct current argon glow discharge. Laser light scattering of a vertical laser sheet going through the plasma reveals that the dust particle cloud is compressed and pushed towards the anode during the discharge. Scanning electron microscopy images of substrates exposed to the plasma for given durations show that dust particles are continuously falling down on the anode during the discharge. These observations are explained by the fact that the electrostatic force at the negative glow-anode sheath boundary cannot balance the ion drag, gravity, and thermophoresis forces for particles of more than a few tens of nanometres in diameter.

Description: We investigate the generation of intense pulsed focused ion beams at the 6 MeV level using an inductive voltage adder (IVA) pulsed-power generator, which employs a magnetically insulated transmission line (MITL). Such IVA machines typical run at an impedance of few tens of Ohms. Previous successful intense ion beam generation experiments have often featured an “axial” pinch-reflex ion diode (i.e., with an axial anode-cathode gap) and operated on a conventional Marx generator/water line driver with an impedance of a few Ohms and no need for an MITL. The goals of these experiments are to develop a pinch-reflex ion diode geometry that has an impedance to efficiently match to an IVA, produces a reasonably high ion current fraction, captures the vacuum electron current flowing forward in the MITL, and focuses the resulting ion beam to small spot size. A new “radial” pinch-reflex ion diode (i.e., with a radial anode-cathode gap) is found to best demonstrate these properties. Operation in both positive and negative polarities was undertaken, although the negative polarity experiments are emphasized. Particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations are consistent with experimental results indicating that, for diode impedances less than the self-limited impedance of the MITL, almost all of the forward-going IVA vacuum electron flow current is incorporated into the diode current. PIC results also provide understanding of the diode-impedance and ion-focusing properties of the diode. In addition, a substantial high-energy ion population is also identified propagating in the “reverse” direction, i.e., from the back side of the anode foil in the electron beam dump.

Description: Electron bulk heating during magnetic reconnection with symmetric inflow conditions is examined using kinetic particle-in-cell simulations. Inflowing plasma parameters are varied over a wide range of conditions, and the increase in electron temperature is measured in the exhaust well downstream of the x-line. The degree of electron heating is well correlated with the inflowing Alfvén speed c Ar based on the reconnecting magnetic field through the relation Δ T e = 0.033   m i   c A r 2 , where Δ T e is the increase in electron temperature. For the range of simulations performed, the heating shows almost no correlation with inflow total temperature T t o t = T i + T e or plasma β . An out-of-plane (guide) magnetic field of similar magnitude to the reconnecting field does not affect the total heating, but it does quench perpendicular heating, with almost all heating being in the parallel direction. These results are qualitatively consistent with a recent statistical survey of electron heating in the dayside magnetopause (Phan et al ., Geophys. Res. Lett. 40 , 4475, 2013), which also found that Δ T e was proportional to the inflowing Alfvén speed. The net electron heating varies very little with distance downstream of the x-line. The simulations show at most a very weak dependence of electron heating on the ion to electron mass ratio. In the antiparallel reconnection case, the largely parallel heating is eventually isotropized downstream due a scattering mechanism, such as stochastic particle motion or instabilities. The simulation size is large enough to be directly relevant to reconnection in the Earth's magnetosphere, and the present findings may prove to be universal in nature with applications to the solar wind, the solar corona, and other astrophysical plasmas. The study highlights key properties that must be satisfied by an electron heating mechanism: (1) preferential heating in the parallel direction; (2) heating proportional to m i   c A r 2 ; (3) at most a weak dependence on electron mass; and (4) an exhaust electron temperature that varies little with distance from the x-line.

Description: Previous nonlinear gyrokinetic simulations of specific DIII-D L-mode cases have been found to significantly underpredict the ion heat transport and associated density and temperature fluctuation levels by up to almost one of order of magnitude in the outer-core domain, i.e., roughly in the last third of the minor radius. Since then, this so-called shortfall issue has been subject to various speculations on possible reasons and furthermore motivation for a number of dedicated comparisons for L-mode plasmas in comparable machines. However, only a rather limited number of simulations and gyrokinetic codes has been applied to the original scenario, thus calling for further dedicated investigations in order to broaden the scientific basis. The present work contributes along these lines by employing another well-established gyrokinetic code in a numerically and physically comprehensive manner. Contrary to the previous studies, only a mild underprediction is observed at the outer radial positions which can furthermore be overcome by varying the ion temperature gradient within the error bars associated with the experimental measurement. The significance and reliability of these simulations are demonstrated by benchmarks, numerical convergence tests, and furthermore by extensive validation studies. The latter involve cross-phase and cross-power spectra analyses of various fluctuating quantities and confirm a high degree of realism. The code discrepancies come as a surprise since the involved software packages had been benchmarked repeatedly and very successfully in the past. Further collaborative effort in identifying the underlying difference is hence required.

Description: We examined the plasma flow response to meso- and microscale magnetic dipoles by performing three-dimensional full particle-in-cell simulations. We particularly focused on the formation of a magnetosphere and its dependence on the intensity of the magnetic moment. The size of a magnetic dipole immersed in a plasma flow can be characterized by a distance L from the dipole center to the position where the pressure of the local magnetic field becomes equal to the dynamic pressure of the plasma flow under the magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) approximation. In this study, we are interested in a magnetic dipole whose L is smaller than the Larmor radius of ions r iL calculated with the unperturbed dipole field at the distance L from the center. In the simulation results, we confirmed the clear formation of a magnetosphere consisting of a magnetopause and a tail region in the density profile, although the spatial scale is much smaller than the MHD scale. One of the important findings in this study is that the spatial profiles of the plasma density as well as the current flows are remarkably affected by the finite Larmor radius effect of the plasma flow, which is different from the Earth's magnetosphere. The magnetopause found in the upstream region is located at a position much closer to the dipole center than L . In the equatorial plane, we also found an asymmetric density profile with respect to the plasma flow direction, which is caused by plasma gyration in the dipole field region. The ion current layers are created in the inner region of the dipole field, and the electron current also flows in the region beyond the ion current layer because ions with a large inertia can closely approach the dipole center. Unlike the ring current structure of the Earth's magnetosphere, the current layers in the microscale dipole fields are not circularly closed around the dipole center. Since the major current is caused by the particle gyrations, the current is independently determined to be in the direction of the electron and ion gyrations, which are the same in both the upstream and downstream regions. The present analysis on the formation of a magnetosphere in the regime of a microscale magnetic dipole is significant for understanding the solar wind response to the crustal magnetic anomalies on the Moon surface, such as were recently observed by spacecraft.

Description: The electrostatic potential profile and the particle densities of a simplified auroral double layer are found using a relaxation method to solve Poisson's equation in one dimension. The electron and ion distribution functions for the ionosphere and magnetosphere are specified at the boundaries, and the particle densities are found from a collisionless kinetic model. The ion distribution function includes the gravitational potential energy; hence, the unperturbed ionospheric plasma has a density gradient. The plasma potential at the upper boundary is given a large negative value to accelerate electrons downward. The solutions for a wide range of dimensionless parameters show that the double layer forms just above a critical altitude that occurs approximately where the ionospheric density has fallen to the magnetospheric density. Below this altitude, the ionospheric ions are gravitationally confined and have the expected scale height for quasineutral plasma in gravity.

Description: Harmonic multiplying gyrotron traveling-wave amplifiers (gyro-TWAs) permit for magnetic field reduction and frequency multiplication. A high-order-mode harmonic multiplying gyro-TWA with large circuit dimensions and low ohmic loss can achieve a high average power. By amplifying a fundamental harmonic TE 01 drive wave, the second harmonic component of the beam current initiates a TE 02 wave to be amplified. Wall losses can suppress some competing modes because they act as an effective sink of the energy of the modes. However, such wall losses do not suppress all competing modes as the fields are contracted in the copper section in the gyro-TWA. An improved mode-selective circuit, using circular waveguides with the specified radii, can provide the rejection points within the frequency range to suppress the competing modes. The simulated results reveal that the mode-selective circuit can provide an attenuation of more than 10 dB to suppress the competing modes ( TE 21 , TE 51 , TE 22 , and TE 03 ). A G-band second harmonic multiplying gyro-TWA with the mode-selective circuit is predicted to yield a peak output power of 50 kW at 198.8 GHz, corresponding to a saturated gain of 55 dB at an interaction efficiency of 10%. The full width at half maximum bandwidth is 5 GHz.

Description: Hysteresis in amplitudes of the self-excited oscillations of the floating potential and discharge current is observed in an unmagnetized co-axial electrode-geometry DC glow discharge plasma system. The nonlinearities of these oscillations are studied using standard dynamical analysis tools. The characterization revealed the transition of low-amplitude high-frequency period-n oscillations to a large amplitude low frequency period-1 oscillations through a chaotic intermediate route. The transition of the low amplitude, high frequency period-n oscillations to chaotic type is observed to be linked to the dynamical change in the plasma system, i.e., after a negative differential resistance (NDR) region, whereas the transition from chaotic to period-1 is observed to be linked to a discharge current threshold.

Description: We have simulated the L-H transition on the EAST tokamak [Baonian Wan, EAST and HT-7 Teams, and International Collaborators, “Recent experiments in the EAST and HT-7 superconducting tokamaks,” Nucl. Fusion 49 , 104011 (2009)] using a predictive transport code where ion and electron temperatures, electron density, and poloidal and toroidal momenta are simulated self consistently. This is, as far as we know, the first theory based simulation of an L-H transition including the whole radius and not making any assumptions about where the barrier should be formed. Another remarkable feature is that we get H-mode gradients in agreement with the α – α d diagram of Rogers et al . [Phys. Rev. Lett. 81 , 4396 (1998)]. Then, the feedback loop emerging from the simulations means that the L-H power threshold increases with the temperature at the separatrix. This is a main feature of the C-mod experiments [Hubbard et al ., Phys. Plasmas 14 , 056109 (2007)]. This is also why the power threshold depends on the direction of the grad B drift in the scrape off layer and also why the power threshold increases with the magnetic field. A further significant general H-mode feature is that the density is much flatter in H-mode than in L-mode.

Description: Space-charge-limited (SCL) current can always be obtained from the blade surface of annular cathodes in foil-less diodes which are widely used in O-type relativistic high power microwave generators. However, there is little theoretical analysis regarding it due to the mathematical complexity, and almost all formulas about the SCL current in foil-less diodes are based on numerical simulation results. This paper performs an initial trial in calculation of the SCL current from annular cathodes theoretically under the ultra-relativistic assumption and the condition of infinitely large guiding magnetic field. The numerical calculation based on the theoretical research is coherent with the particle-in-cell (PIC) simulation result to some extent under a diode voltage of 850 kV. Despite that the theoretical research gives a much larger current than the PIC simulation (41.3 kA for the former and 9.7 kA for the latter), which is induced by the ultra-relativistic assumption in the theoretical research, they both show the basic characteristic of emission from annular cathodes in foil-less diodes, i.e., the emission enhancement at the cathode blade edges, especially at the outer edge. This characteristic is confirmed to some extent in our experimental research of cathode plasma photographing under the same diode voltage and a guiding magnetic field of 4 T.

Description: We derive two equations describing the coupling between electromagnetic and electrostatic oscillations in one-dimensional geometry in a magnetized cold and non-relativistic plasma. The nonlinear interaction between the wave modes is studied numerically. The effects of the external magnetic field strength and the initial electromagnetic polarization are of particular interest here. New results can, thus, be identified.

Description: We investigate changes in the intermittent sequence of bursts in the electrostatic turbulence due to imposed positive bias voltage applied to control the plasma radial electric field in Texas Helimak [K. W. Gentle and H. He, Plasma Sci. Technol. 10 , 284 (2008)]—a toroidal plasma device with a one-dimensional equilibrium, magnetic curvature, and shear. We identify the burst characteristics by analyzing ion saturation current fluctuations collected in a large set of Langmuir probes. The number of bursts increase with positive biasing, giving rise to a long tailed skewed turbulence probability distribution function. The burst shape does not change much with the applied bias voltage, while their vertical velocity increases monotonically. For high values of bias voltage, the bursts propagate mainly in the vertical direction which is perpendicular to the radial density gradient and the toroidal magnetic field. Moreover, in contrast with the bursts in tokamaks, the burst velocity agrees with the phase velocity of the overall turbulence in both vertical and radial directions. For a fixed bias voltage, the time interval between bursts and their amplitudes follows exponential distributions. Altogether, these burst characteristics indicate that their production can be modelled by a stochastic process.

Description: Simulations of doublet III-D, the joint European tokamak, and the tokamak fusion test reactor L-mode tokamak plasmas are carried out using the PTRANSP predictive integrated modeling code. The simulation and experimental temperature profiles are compared. The time evolved temperature profiles are computed utilizing the Multi-Mode anomalous transport model version 7.1 (MMM7.1) which includes transport associated with drift-resistive-inertial ballooning modes (the DRIBM model [T. Rafiq et al ., Phys. Plasmas 17 , 082511 (2010)]). The tokamak discharges considered involved a broad range of conditions including scans over gyroradius, ITER like current ramp-up, with and without neon impurity injection, collisionality, and low and high plasma current. The comparison of simulation and experimental temperature profiles for the discharges considered is shown for the radial range from the magnetic axis to the last closed flux surface. The regions where various modes in the Multi-Mode model contribute to transport are illustrated. In the simulations carried out using the MMM7.1 model it is found that: The drift-resistive-inertial ballooning modes contribute to the anomalous transport primarily near the edge of the plasma; transport associated with the ion temperature gradient and trapped electron modes contribute in the core region but decrease in the region of the plasma boundary; and neoclassical ion thermal transport contributes mainly near the center of the discharge.

Description: The determination of plasma equilibria from diagnostic information is a fundamental issue. V3FIT is a fully three-dimensional reconstruction code capable of solving the inverse problem using both magnetic and kinetic measurements. It uses VMEC as core equilibrium solver and supports both free- and fixed-boundary reconstruction approaches. In fixed-boundary mode VMEC does not use explicit information about currents in external coils, even though it has important effects on the shape of the safety factor profile. Indeed, the edge safety factor influences the reversal position in RFP plasmas, which then determines the position of the m =  0 island chain and the edge transport properties. In order to exploit such information a new virtual diagnostic has been developed, that thanks to Ampère's law relates the external current through the center of the torus to the circulation of the toroidal magnetic field on the outermost flux surface. The reconstructions that exploit the new diagnostic are indeed found to better interpret the experimental data with respect to edge physics.

Description: The structural stability of the laser/plasma interaction is discussed, for the case of a linearly polarized laser beam interacting with a solid at normal incidence. Using a semi-analytical cold fluid model, the dynamics of the electron plasma boundary (EPB), usually related to the high-order harmonic generation and laser absorption, are presented. While the well-known J  ×  B plasma oscillations at two times the laser frequency are recovered by the model, several other periodic in time stable solutions exist for exactly the same value of the physical parameters. This novel behavior highlights the importance of the laser pulse history among other factors. Some important features, such as the synchronization between the incident laser and the EPB oscillation, depend on the solution under consideration. A description of the possible types of stable oscillations in a parametric plane involving plasma density and laser amplitude is presented. The semi-analytical model is compared with particle-in-cell and semi-Lagrangian Vlasov simulations. They show that, among all the stable solutions, the plasma preferentially evolves to a state with the EPB oscillating twice faster than the laser. The effect of the plasma temperature and the existence of a ramp in the ion density profile are also discussed.

Description: Existence of the density limit in the helicon plasma sources is revisited. The low- and high-frequency regimes of a helicon plasma source operation are distinguished. In the low-frequency regime with ω 〈 ω c i ω c e , the density limit is deduced from the Golant-Stix criterion of the accessibility of the lower hybrid resonance. In the high-frequency case, ω 〉 ω c i ω c e , an appropriate limit is given by the Shamrai-Taranov criterion. Both these criteria are closely related to the phenomenon of the coalescence of the helicon wave with the Trivelpiece-Gould mode. We draw a conclusion that the derived density limits are not currently achieved in existing devices, perhaps, because of high energy cost of gas ionization.

Description: Energy transfer to damped modes in gyrokinetic ion temperature gradient driven turbulence is studied to understand the transfer dynamics and find scaling representations for the heavily populated mode space. Proper orthogonal and linear eigenmode decompositions are introduced and examined to assess whether modes are well-resolved and what scales they encompass. It is observed that damped modes across a range of inhomogeneous scales receive energy simultaneously and directly from the unstable mode, constituting a form of parallel transfer, distinct from the serial mode-to-mode transfer of the wavenumber cascade of hydrodynamic turbulence. Controlling for modes that are well resolved and labeling the modes of the linear decomposition in order of damping rate, energy transfer in the mode space satisfies an equipartition of the energy dissipation rate, leading to a simple rule for the distribution of energy in the space of damped modes. Energy dissipation rate equipartition is the form that the canonical nonlinear invariance of energy transfer assumes in a dissipation range with parallel rather than serial transfer.

Description: By combining the Cerenkov-type generator with the cascaded resonators, this paper proposes a Ka-band relativistic backward wave oscillator operating under the guide magnetic field 1.0 T with high power handling capability and high conversion efficiency. It is found that TM 02 can be selected as the operation mode in order to increase the power handling capability and provide sufficient coupling with the electron beam. In slow wave structure (SWS), ripples composed of semicircle on top of the rectangle enhance the wave-beam interaction and decrease the intensity of the electric field on the metallic surface. Taking advantage of the resonator cascades, the output power and the conversion efficiency are promoted greatly. The front cascaded resonators efficiently prevent the power generated in SWS from leaking into the diode region, and quicken the startup of the oscillation due to the premodulation of the beam. However, the post cascade slightly postpones the startup because of the further energy extraction from the electron beam. The numerical simulation shows that generation with power 514 MW and efficiency 41% is obtained under the diode voltage 520 kV and current 2.4 kA. And the microwave with the pure frequency spectrum of 29.35 GHz radiates in the pure TM 01 mode.

Description: The electrons in capacitively coupled plasmas (CCPs) absorb energy via ohmic heating due to electron-neutral collisions and stochastic heating due to momentum transfer from high voltage moving sheaths. We use Particle-in-Cell (PIC) simulations to explore these heating mechanisms and to compare the PIC results with available theories on ohmic and stochastic heating. The PIC results for ohmic heating show good agreement with the ohmic heating calculation of Lafleur et al . [Phys. Plasmas 20 , 124503 (2013)]. The PIC results for stochastic heating in low pressure CCPs with collisionless sheaths show good agreement with the stochastic heating model of Kaganovich et al . [IEEE Trans. Plasma Sci. 34 , 696 (2006)], which revises the hard wall asymptotic model of Lieberman [IEEE Trans. Plasma Sci. 16 , 638 (1988)] by taking current continuity and bulk oscillation into account.

Description: A 3-dimensional particle-in-cell/Monte Carlo collision simulation that is fully implemented on a graphics processing unit (GPU) is described and used to determine low-temperature plasma characteristics at high reduced electric field, E/n, in nitrogen gas. Details of implementation on the GPU using the NVIDIA Compute Unified Device Architecture framework are discussed with respect to efficient code execution. The software is capable of tracking around 10 × 10 6 particles with dynamic weighting and a total mesh size larger than 10 8 cells. Verification of the simulation is performed by comparing the electron energy distribution function and plasma transport parameters to known Boltzmann Equation (BE) solvers. Under the assumption of a uniform electric field and neglecting the build-up of positive ion space charge, the simulation agrees well with the BE solvers. The model is utilized to calculate plasma characteristics of a pulsed, parallel plate discharge. A photoionization model provides the simulation with additional electrons after the initial seeded electron density has drifted towards the anode. Comparison of the performance benefits between the GPU-implementation versus a CPU-implementation is considered, and a speed-up factor of 13 for a 3D relaxation Poisson solver is obtained. Furthermore, a factor 60 speed-up is realized for parallelization of the electron processes.

Description: The characterization of plasma bursts produced after the pinch phase in a plasma focus of hundreds of joules, using pulsed optical refractive techniques, is presented. A pulsed Nd-YAG laser at 532 nm and 8 ns FWHM pulse duration was used to obtain Schlieren images at different times of the plasma dynamics. The energy, interaction time with a target, and power flux of the plasma burst were assessed, providing useful information for the application of plasma focus devices for studying the effects of fusion-relevant pulses on material targets. In particular, it was found that damage factors on targets of the order of 10 4 (W/cm 2 )s 1/2 can be obtained with a small plasma focus operating at hundred joules.

Description: We investigate theoretically the influence of static plasma screening on relativistic spin-orbit interaction-induced fine-structure splitting of the D-line doublet arising from the transitions 3p 1/2 –3s 1/2 and 3p 3/2 –3s 1/2 of the valence electron of a sodium atom embedded in a model plasma environment. The many-electron atomic problem is formulated first as an effective one-electron problem in which the interaction between the optically active valence electron and the atomic ion core is represented by an accurate parametric model potential including core-polarization correction, and then the plasma effect on the atomic system is simulated by the Debye-screening model for the valence-core interaction. It is observed that the magnitude of spin-orbit energy shift reduces for both the upper component 3p 3/2 and the lower component 3p 1/2 with increasing plasma screening strength, thereby reducing the spin-orbit energy separation between these two components as the screening becomes stronger. As a consequence, the magnitude of fine-structure splitting between the D 1 and D 2 line energies of sodium drops significantly with stronger plasma screening. The optical (absorption) oscillator strength for 3s → 3p transition is seen to reduce with stronger screening and this leads to a screening-induced gradual suppression of the 3p → 3s spontaneous decay rate.

Description: Here, we show that defocusing of the laser in the interaction of a picosecond duration, 1.053  μ m wavelength, high energy pulse with a cone-wire target does not significantly affect the laser energy coupling efficiency, but does result in a drop in the fast electron effective temperature. This may be beneficial for fast ignition, since not only were more electrons with lower energies seen in the experiment but also the lower prepulse intensity will reduce the amount of preplasma present on arrival of the main pulse, reducing the distance the hot electrons have to travel. We used the Vulcan Petawatt Laser at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory and gold cone targets with approximately 1 mm long, 40  μ m diameter copper wires attached to their tip. Diagnostics included a quartz crystal imager, a pair of highly oriented pyrolytic graphite crystal spectrometers and a calibrated CCD operating in the single photon counting regime, all of which looked at the copper K α emission from the wire. A short pulse optical probe, delayed 400 ps relative to the main pulse was employed to diagnose the extent of plasma expansion around the wire. A ray-tracing code modeled the change in intensity on the interior surface of the cone with laser defocusing. Using a model for the wire copper K α emission coupled to a hybrid Vlasov-Fokker-Planck code, we ran a series of simulations, holding the total energy in electrons constant whilst varying the electron temperature, which support the experimental conclusions.

Description: In this paper, a computational simulation of the sheath formation during the streamer-surface interaction at atmospheric pressure is presented. A two-dimensional fluid model of a point-to-plane configuration is applied to investigate the evolution of the discharge in the vicinity of cathode plane. The effects of the surfaces on the properties of streamer have been studied for three cases, i.e., conductive surface with secondary electron emission (SEE), conductive surface without SEE, and dielectric surface. In all cases, we found that the axial propagation velocity of the streamer front decreases as the streamer arrives at the boundary of the cathode sheath. And the simulation results showed that the properties of the surface have a significant effect on the streamer. Besides the influences, the secondary emission coefficient and the relative permittivity on the streamer-surface interactions are also studied.

Description: It was recently shown that a promising way to accelerate protons in the forward direction to high energies is to use under-dense or near-critical density targets instead of solids. Simulations have revealed that the acceleration process depends on the density gradients of the plasma target. Indeed, under certain conditions, the most energetic protons are predicted to be accelerated by a collisionless shock mechanism that significantly increases their energy. We report here the results of a recent experiment dedicated to the study of longitudinal ion acceleration in partially exploded foils using a high intensity (∼5 × 10 18  W/cm 2 ) picosecond laser pulse. We show that protons accelerated using targets having moderate front and rear plasma gradients (up to ∼8  μ m gradient length) exhibit similar maximum proton energy and number compared to proton beams that are produced, in similar laser conditions, from solid targets, in the well-known target normal sheath acceleration regime. Particle-In-Cell simulations, performed in the same conditions as the experiment and consistent with the measurements, allow laying a path for further improvement of this acceleration scheme.

Description: The heat flux patterns measured in low-collisionality DIII-D H-mode plasmas strongly deviate from simultaneously measured CII emission patterns, used as indicator of particle flux, during applied resonant magnetic perturbations. While the CII emission clearly shows typical striations, which are similar to magnetic footprint patterns obtained from vacuum field line tracing, the heat flux is usually dominated by one large peak at the strike point position. The vacuum approximation, which only considers applied magnetic fields and neglects plasma response and plasma effects, cannot explain the shape of the observed heat flux pattern. One possible explanation is the effect of particle drifts. This is included in the field line equations and the results are discussed with reference to the measurement. Electrons and ions show different drift motions at thermal energy levels in a guiding center approximation. While electrons hardly deviate from the field lines, ions can drift several centimetres away from field line flux surfaces. A model is presented in which an ion heat flux, based on the ion drift motion from various kinetic energies as they contribute to a thermal Maxwellian distribution, is calculated. The simulated heat flux is directly compared to measurements with a varying edge safety factor q 95 . This analysis provides evidence for the dominate effect of high-energy ions in carrying heat from the plasma inside the separatrix to the target. High-energy ions are deposited close to the unperturbed strike line, while low-energy ions can travel into the striated magnetic topology.

Description: Two fundamental challenging problems of laboratory and astrophysical plasmas are the understanding of the relaxation of a collisionless plasmas with nearly isotropic velocity distribution functions and the resultant state of nearly equipartition energy density with electromagnetic plasma turbulence. Here, we present the results of a study which shows the role that higher-order-modes play in limiting the electromagnetic whistler-like fluctuations in a thermal and non-thermal plasma. Our main results show that for a thermal plasma the magnetic fluctuations are confined by regions that are bounded by the least-damped higher order modes. We further show that the zone where the whistler-cyclotron normal modes merges the electromagnetic fluctuations shifts to longer wavelengths as the β e increases. This merging zone has been interpreted as the beginning of the region where the whistler-cyclotron waves losses their identity and become heavily damped while merging with the fluctuations. Our results further indicate that in the case of nonthermal plasmas, the higher-order modes do not confine the fluctuations due to the effective higher-temperature effects and the excess of suprathermal plasma particles. The analysis presented here considers the second-order theory of fluctuations and the dispersion relation of weakly transverse fluctuations, with wave vectors parallel to the uniform background magnetic field, in a finite temperature isotropic bi-Maxwellian and Tsallis-kappa-like magnetized electron–proton plasma. Our results indicate that the spontaneously emitted electromagnetic fluctuations are in fact enhanced over these quasi modes suggesting that such modes play an important role in the emission and absorption of electromagnetic fluctuations in thermal or quasi-thermal plasmas.

Description: Theoretical refinements to an existing model for the loss of ions by drifting across the last closed flux surface are presented.

Description: Two issues in the cavity design for a Megawatt-class, 240 GHz gyrotron are addressed. Those are first, the effect of a misaligned electron beam on the gyrotron efficiency and second, a possible azimuthal instability of the gyrotron. The aforementioned effects are important for any gyrotron operation, but could be more critical in the operation of Megawatt-class gyrotrons at frequencies above 200 GHz, which will be the anticipated requirement of DEMO. The target is to provide some basic trends to be considered during the refinement and optimization of the design. Self-consistent calculations are the base for simulations wherever possible. However, in cases for which self-consistent models were not available, fixed-field results are presented. In those cases, the conservative nature of the results should be kept in mind.

Description: The connection between impurity ion heating and other physical processes in the plasma is evaluated by studying variations in the amount of ion heating at reconnection events in the Madison Symmetric Torus (MST). Correlation of the change in ion temperature with individual tearing mode amplitudes indicates that the edge-resonant modes are better predictors for the amount of global ion heating than the core-resonant modes. There is also a strong correlation between ion heating and current profile relaxation. Simultaneous measurements of the ion temperature at different toroidal locations reveal, for the first time, a toroidal asymmetry to the ion heating in MST. These results present challenges for existing heating theories and suggest a stronger connection between edge-resonant tearing modes, current profile relaxation, and ion heating than has been previously thought.

Description: This paper provides 2D comparative study of results obtained using laminar and turbulent flow model for RF (radio frequency) Inductively Coupled Plasma (ICP) torch. The study was done for the RF-ICP torch operating at 50 kW DC power and 3 MHz frequency located at BARC. The numerical modeling for this RF-ICP torch is done using ANSYS software with the developed User Defined Function. A comparative study is done between laminar and turbulent flow model to investigate how temperature and flow fields change when using different operating conditions such as (a) swirl and no swirl velocity for sheath gas flow rate, (b) variation in sheath gas flow rate, and (c) variation in plasma gas flow rate. These studies will be useful for different material processing applications.

Description: Effects of pressure anisotropy on magnetospheric magnetohydrodynamics equilibrium are studied analytically and numerically, where the plasma is confined by only poloidal magnetic field generated by an internal ring current. The plasma current due to finite pressure can be divided into two components; one remains at isotropic pressure and the other arises from pressure anisotropy. When p ⊥ , the pressure perpendicular to the magnetic field, is larger than p ∥ , the pressure parallel to the magnetic field, those two components of plasma current tend to cancel each other to reduce the total amount of plasma current. Equilibrium beta limit is also examined, where the beta is a ratio of the plasma pressure to the magnetic pressure. The equilibrium beta limit decreases as the pressure anisotropy becomes strong. The beta value is strictly limited by ellipticity of the equilibrium equation when p ∥ 〉 p ⊥ . On the other hand, when p ⊥ 〉 p ∥ , although the tendency of the beta limit agrees with the ellipticity condition of the equilibrium equation, equilibria with a hyperbolic region can be obtained by iterative procedure with practically reasonable convergence criteria.

Description: Experimental studies by Poehlmann et al. [Phys. Plasmas 17 (12), 123508 (2010)] on a coaxial electrode magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) plasma accelerator have revealed two modes of operation. A deflagration or stationary mode is observed for lower power settings, while higher input power leads to a detonation or snowplow mode. A numerical modeling study of a coaxial plasma accelerator using the non-ideal MHD equations is presented. The effect of plasma conductivity on the axial distribution of radial current is studied and found to agree well with experiments. Lower conductivities lead to the formation of a high current density, stationary region close to the inlet/breech, which is a characteristic of the deflagration mode, while a propagating current sheet like feature is observed at higher conductivities, similar to the detonation mode. Results confirm that plasma resistivity, which determines magnetic field diffusion effects, is fundamentally responsible for the two modes.

Description: In this work, we re-examine collisional absorption of 800 nm wavelength laser pulses in under-dense plasma. For a given temperature and density of the plasma, most of the conventional models of the electron-ion collision frequency ν ei , with a Coulomb logarithm independent of the electron-ponderomotive velocity, show that ν ei and the corresponding fractional laser absorption α remain almost constant (or decrease slowly) up to a value I c of the peak intensity I 0 of the laser pulse, and then ν ei and α decrease as ≈ I 0 − 3 / 2 when I 0 is increased beyond I c . On the contrary, below some temperature ( ≲ 10   eV ) and density, with a total-velocity (thermal velocity plus the ponderomotive velocity) dependent Coulomb logarithm, we find that ν ei and α grow hand in hand up to a maximum value around I c followed by the conventional I 0 − 3 / 2 decrease when I 0 〉 I c . Such a non-conventional anomalous variation of α with I 0 was observed in some earlier experiments, but no explanation has been given so far. The modified Coulomb logarithm considered in this work may be responsible for those experimental observations. With increasing temperature and density, the anomalous behavior is found to disappear even with the modified Coulomb logarithm, and the variation of ν ei and α with I 0 approach to the conventional scenario.

Description: Since ignition target design with layered deuterium and triterium ice had been proposed several decades ago, much effort was devoted to fabricate and implode cryogenic targets. Until recently, direct-drive cryogenic target implosion experiment was carried out on SGIII prototype laser facility. The target consisted of a plastic capsule supported by fill tube. Cryogenic helium gas was used to cool the capsule to a few degrees below the deuterium triple point. The resulting deuterium ice layer was characterized by optical shadowgraph and smoothed by applied temperature gradient. Eight laser beams with total energy of 7 kJ were used to directly drive the implosion. On the path of laser light to the capsule, there were 500 nm sealing film and helium gas of mm length. X-ray pinhole images were analyzed to confirm that the sealing film, and helium gas had little effect on aiming accuracy but caused some loss of laser energy especially when condensation on the sealing film was observed.

Description: The magnetoacoustic cyclotron instability (MCI) probably underlies observations of ion cyclotron emission (ICE) from energetic ion populations in tokamak plasmas, including fusion-born alpha-particles in JET and TFTR [Dendy et al. , Nucl. Fusion 35 , 1733 (1995)]. ICE is a potential diagnostic for lost alpha-particles in ITER; furthermore, the MCI is representative of a class of collective instabilities, which may result in the partial channelling of the free energy of energetic ions into radiation, and away from collisional heating of the plasma. Deep understanding of the MCI is thus of substantial practical interest for fusion, and the hybrid approximation for the plasma, where ions are treated as particles and electrons as a neutralising massless fluid, offers an attractive way forward. The hybrid simulations presented here access MCI physics that arises on timescales longer than can be addressed by fully kinetic particle-in-cell simulations and by analytical linear theory, which the present simulations largely corroborate. Our results go further than previous studies by entering into the nonlinear stage of the MCI, which shows novel features. These include stronger drive at low cyclotron harmonics, the re-energisation of the alpha-particle population, self-modulation of the phase shift between the electrostatic and electromagnetic components, and coupling between low and high frequency modes of the excited electromagnetic field.

Description: We propose a spherical hohlraum with octahedral six laser entrance holes at a specific hohlraum-to-capsule radius ratio of 5.14 for inertial fusion study, which has robust high symmetry during the capsule implosion and low backscatter without supplementary technology. To produce an ignition radiation pulse of 300 eV, it needs 1.5 MJ absorbed laser energy in such a golden octahedral hohlraum, about 30% more than a traditional cylinder. Nevertheless, it is worth for a high symmetry and low backscatter. The proposed octahedral hohlraum is also flexible and can be applicable to diverse inertial fusion drive approaches.

Description: We present an analytic study of momentum transport of tokamak plasmas in the vicinity of minimum safety factor ( q ) position in reversed magnetic shear configuration. Slab ion temperature gradient modes with an equilibrium flow profile are considered in this study. Quasi-linear calculations of momentum flux clearly show the novel effects of q -curvature on the generation of intrinsic rotation and mean poloidal flow without invoking reflectional symmetry breaking of parallel wavenumber ( k ∥ ). This q -curvature effect originates from the inherent asymmetry in k ∥ populations with respect to a rational surface due to the quadratic proportionality of k ∥ when q -curvature is taken into account. Discussions are made of possible implications of q -curvature induced plasma flows on internal transport barrier formation in reversed shear tokamaks.

Description: We investigate the bound 1,3 D states and the doubly-excited 1,3 D e resonance states of two-electron positive ions Li + and Be 2+ by employing correlated exponential wave functions. In the framework of the stabilization method, we are able to extract three series (2 pnp , 2 snd , 2 pnf ) of 1 D e resonances and two series (2 pnp , 2 snd ) of 3 D e resonances below the N   =  2 threshold. The 1,3 D e resonance parameters (resonance energies and widths) for Li + and Be 2+ along with the bound-excited 1s3d 1,3 D state energies are reported for the first time as functions of the screening parameter. Accurate resonance energies and widths are also reported for Li + and Be 2+ in vacuum. For free-atomic cases, comparisons are made with the reported results and few resonance states are reported for the first time.

Description: In the deuterium-tritium inertial confinement fusion implosion experiments on the National Ignition Facility, the measured neutron yield and hot spot pressure are significantly lower than simulations. Understanding the underlying physics of the deficit is essential to achieving ignition. This paper investigates the low-mode areal density asymmetry in the main fuel of ignition capsule. It is shown that the areal density asymmetry breaks up the compressed shell and significantly reduces the conversion of implosion kinetic energy to hot spot internal energy, leading to the calculated hot spot pressure and neutron yield quite close to the experimental data. This indicates that the low-mode shell areal density asymmetry can explain part of the large discrepancy between simulations and experiments. Since only using the hot spot shape term could not adequately characterize the effects of the shell areal density asymmetry on implosion performance, a new metric of the low-mode asymmetry is developed to accurately measure the probability of ignition.

Description: In this paper, we present an approach to achieve suppression/complete stabilization of the transverse electromagnetic beam Weibel instability in counter streaming electron beams by modifying the background plasma with an equilibrium density ripple, shorter than the skin depth; this weakening is more pronounced when thermal effects are included. On the basis of a linear two stream fluid model, it is shown that the growth rate of transverse electromagnetic instabilities can be reduced to zero value provided certain threshold values for ripple parameters are exceeded. We point out the relevance of the work to recent experimental investigations on sustained (long length) collimation of fast electron beams and integral beam transport for laser induced fast ignition schemes, where beam divergence is suppressed with the assistance of carbon nano-tubes.

Description: It is shown that a magnetized plasma layer with a velocity gradient in the flow perpendicular to the ambient magnetic field is unstable to waves in the Very Low Frequency band that spans the ion and electron gyrofrequencies. The waves are formally electromagnetic. However, depending on wave vector k ¯ = k c / ω p e (normalized by the electron skin depth) and the obliqueness, k ⊥ / k | | , where k ⊥ , | | are wave vectors perpendicular and parallel to the magnetic field, the waves are closer to electrostatic in nature when k ¯ ≫ 1 and k ⊥ ≫ k | | and electromagnetic otherwise. Inhomogeneous transverse flows are generated in plasma that contains a static electric field perpendicular to the magnetic field, a configuration that may naturally arise in the boundary layer between plasmas of different characteristics.

Description: In this paper, we investigate the effects of plasma number-density and quantum shielding of ions by degenerate electrons on the free-free and electron-atom bremsstrahlung radiation spectra in dense quantum plasmas for a wide range of plasma number-density and atomic-number of the constituent ions. We use previously reported results from the extended Shukla-Eliasson quantum-dressed ionic potential, which takes into account the relativistic degeneracy effect, the quantum statistical pressure, the electron-exchange correlations, the Wigner-Seitz cell interaction feature, as well as the important collective quantum diffraction of electrons. It is observed that the electron number-density has fundamental effect on the free-free and bound-bound bremsstrahlung radiation spectra over the whole frequency range of radiation. By comparing the radiation spectra for the quantum plasmas with ions of bare Coulomb, Thomas-Fermi, and extended quantum potentials, many important features of the bremsstrahlung radiation is highlighted. Current investigation can provide important information on plasma diagnostics for atomic processes in dense plasmas, such as the inertial-confinement fusion, warm dense matter, and the planetary cores. The results can also help in better understanding of the cooling processes in completely degenerate hot compact stellar objects such as white dwarfs.

Description: In this paper, the effective interaction potential in two component semiclassical plasma, taking into account the long-range screening and the quantum-mechanical diffraction effects at short distances, is obtained on the basis of dielectric response function method. The structural properties of the semiclassical plasma are considered. The thermodynamic characteristics (the internal energy and the equation of state) are calculated using two methods: the method of effective potentials and the method of micropotentials with screening effect taken into account by the Ornstein-Zernike equation in the HNC approximation.

Description: Fast, impulsive reconnection is commonly observed in laboratory, space, and astrophysical plasmas. In this work, impulsive, local, 3-D reconnection is identified for the first time in a laboratory current sheet. The two-fluid, impulsive reconnection events observed on the Magnetic Reconnection Experiment (MRX) [Yamada et al. , Phys Plasmas 4 , 1936 (1997)] cannot be explained by 2-D models and are therefore fundamentally three-dimensional. Several signatures of flux ropes are identified with these events; 3-D high current density regions with O-point structure form during a slow buildup period that precedes a fast disruption of the reconnecting current layer. The observed drop in the reconnection current and spike in the reconnection rate during the disruption are due to ejection of these flux ropes from the layer. Underscoring the 3-D nature of the events, strong out-of-plane gradients in both the density and reconnecting magnetic field are found to play a key role in this process. Electromagnetic fluctuations in the lower hybrid frequency range are observed to peak at the disruption time; however, they are not the key physics responsible for the impulsive phenomena observed. Important features of the disruption dynamics cannot be explained by an anomalous resistivity model. An important discrepancy in the layer width and force balance between the collisionless regime of MRX and kinetic simulations is also revisited. The wider layers observed in MRX may be due to the formation of flux ropes with a wide range of sizes; consistent with this hypothesis, flux rope signatures are observed down to the smallest scales resolved by the diagnostics. Finally, a 3-D two-fluid model is proposed to explain how the observed out-of-plane variation may lead to a localized region of enhanced reconnection that spreads in the direction of the out-of-plane electron flow, ejecting flux ropes from the layer in a 3-D manner.

Description: The effects of ion-neutral collisions on the dynamics of the nonlinear ion acoustic wave in pair-ion plasma are investigated. The standard perturbative approach leads to a Korteweg-de Vries equation with a linear damping term for the dynamics of the finite amplitude wave. The ion-neutral collision induced dissipation is responsible for the linear damping. The analytical solution and numerical simulation reveal that the nonlinear wave propagates in the form of a weakly dissipative compressive solitons. Furthermore, the width of the soliton is proportional to the amplitude of the wave for fixed soliton velocity. Results are discussed in the context of the fullerene pair-ion plasma experiment.

Description: Development of quantum electrodynamical (QED) cascades in a standing electromagnetic wave for circular and linear polarizations is simulated numerically with a 3D PIC-MC code. It is demonstrated that for the same laser energy the number of particles produced in a circularly polarized field is greater than in a linearly polarized field, though the acquiring mean energy per particle is larger in the latter case. The qualitative model of laser-assisted QED cascades is extended by including the effect of polarization of the field. It turns out that cascade dynamics is notably more complicated in the case of linearly polarized field, where separation into the qualitatively different “electric” and “magnetic” regions (where the electric field is stronger than the magnetic field and vice versa) becomes essential. In the “magnetic” regions, acceleration is suppressed, and moreover the high-energy electrons are even getting cooled by photon emission. The volumes of the “electric” and “magnetic” regions evolve periodically in time and so does the cascade growth rate. In contrast to the linear polarization, the charged particles can be accelerated by circularly polarized wave even in “magnetic region.” The “electric” and “magnetic” regions do not evolve in time, and cascade growth rate almost does not depend on time for circular polarization.

Description: Quantum Zakharov-Kuznetsov (qZK) equation is found in a dense quantum magnetoplasma. Via the spectral analysis, we investigate the Hamiltonian and periodicity of the qZK equation. Using the Hirota method, we obtain the bilinear forms and N -soliton solutions. Asymptotic analysis on the two-soliton solutions shows that the soliton interaction is elastic. Figures are plotted to reveal the propagation characteristics and interaction between the two solitons. We find that the one soliton has a single peak and its amplitude is positively related to H e , while the two solitons are parallel when H e  

Description: The low repetition rates and possible shot-to-shot variations in laser-plasma studies place a high value on single-shot diagnostics. For example, white-beam scattering methods based on broadband backlighter x-ray sources are used to determine changes in the structure of laser-shocked crystalline materials by the evolution of coincidences of reciprocal lattice vectors and kinematically allowed momentum transfers. Here, we demonstrate that white-beam techniques can be extended to strongly disordered dense plasma and warm dense matter systems where reciprocal space is only weakly structured and spectroscopic detection is consequently needed to determine the static structure factor and thus, the ion-ion radial distribution function. Specifically, we report a photometric study of energy-dispersive x-ray diffraction (ED-XRD) for structural measurement of high energy density systems at large-scale laser facilities such as OMEGA and the National Ignition Facility. We find that structural information can be obtained in single-shot ED-XRD experiments using established backlighter and spectrometer technologies.

Description: DC and pulse breakdown in the He-Ar gas mixture are investigated for small pressures and inter-electrode gaps. Expressions for calculating the breakdown voltage of a gas mixture are derived, assuming that breakdown occurs by way of the Townsend breakdown mechanism and that Maxwell spectrum can be used for the free electron gas. The parameters considered in experiments have been chosen so as to be of interest in designing gas-filled surge arresters. The obtained results demonstrate that the derived breakdown voltage expressions are correct, and that a suitable choice of parameters can produce a positive synergetic effect with regard to gas-filled surge arrester design. The latter issue is especially interesting for lowering the dc breakdown voltage of unconditioned electrodes.

Description: In some regions of a laser driven inertial fusion target, the electron mean-free path can become comparable to or even longer than the electron temperature gradient scale-length. This can be particularly important in shock-ignited (SI) targets, where the laser-spike heated corona reaches temperatures of several keV. In this case, thermal conduction cannot be described by a simple local conductivity model and a Fick's law. Fluid codes usually employ flux-limited conduction models, which preserve causality, but lose important features of the thermal flow. A more accurate thermal flow modeling requires convolution-like non-local operators. In order to improve the simulation of SI targets, the non-local electron transport operator proposed by Schurtz-Nicolaï-Busquet [G. P. Schurtz et al. , Phys. Plasmas 7 , 4238 (2000)] has been implemented in the DUED fluid code. Both one-dimensional (1D) and two-dimensional (2D) simulations of SI targets have been performed. 1D simulations of the ablation phase highlight that while the shock profile and timing might be mocked up with a flux-limiter; the electron temperature profiles exhibit a relatively different behavior with no major effects on the final gain. The spike, instead, can only roughly be reproduced with a fixed flux-limiter value. 1D target gain is however unaffected, provided some minor tuning of laser pulses. 2D simulations show that the use of a non-local thermal conduction model does not affect the robustness to mispositioning of targets driven by quasi-uniform laser irradiation. 2D simulations performed with only two final polar intense spikes yield encouraging results and support further studies.

Description: Microwave backscattering experiments have been performed on the Alcator C-Mod tokamak in order to investigate the propagation of lower hybrid (LH) waves in reactor-relevant, high-density plasmas. When the line-averaged density is raised above 1 × 10 20 m –3 , lower hybrid current drive efficiency is found to be lower than expected [Wallace et al. , Phys. Plasmas 19 , 062505 (2012)] and LH power is thought to be dissipated at the plasma edge. Using a single channel (60 GHz) ordinary-mode (O-mode) reflectometer system, we demonstrate radially localized LH wave measurements in the scrape-off layer of high density plasmas ( n ¯ e   ≳   0.9 × 10 20   m − 3 ). Measured backscattered O-mode power varies depending on the magnetic field line mapping, suggesting the resonance cone propagation of LH waves. Backscattered power is also sensitive to variations in plasma density and the launched parallel refractive index of the LH waves. LH ray-tracing simulations have been carried out to interpret the observed variations. To understand the measured LH waves in regions not magnetically connected to the launcher, two hypotheses are examined. One is the weak single pass absorption and the other is scattering of LH waves by non-linear effects.

Description: The physical mechanism of the synergy current driven by lower hybrid wave (LHW) and electron cyclotron wave (ECW) in tokamaks is investigated using theoretical analysis and simulation methods in the present paper. Research shows that the synergy relationship between the two waves in velocity space strongly depends on the frequency ω and parallel refractive index N // of ECW. For a given spectrum of LHW, the parameter range of ECW, in which the synergy current exists, can be predicted by theoretical analysis, and these results are consistent with the simulation results. It is shown that the synergy effect is mainly caused by the electrons accelerated by both ECW and LHW, and the acceleration of these electrons requires that there is overlap of the resonance regions of the two waves in velocity space.

Description: The transport of impurities by a sawtooth crash is simulated with the XTOR-2F code. Impurities are modeled as passive scalars, evolving in the compressible MHD flow inferred from the main MHD plasma. For a peaked impurity density profile, the non-linear kink flow of the sawtooth crash redistributes the profile efficiently and most of the particles in the peak inside the q  = 1 surface are expelled. For an initially hollow impurity density profile, the crash leads to a significant penetration up to the magnetic axis. The results are compared with Kadomtsev's model. Despite essentially different mechanisms, the evolution of the particle content inside the q  = 1 surface for Kadomtsev's model and for the non-linear case are virtually identical for the peaked profile, while the model slightly overestimates penetration for the hollow case.

Description: The Madison plasma dynamo experiment (MPDX) is a novel, versatile, basic plasma research device designed to investigate flow driven magnetohydrodynamic instabilities and other high-β phenomena with astrophysically relevant parameters. A 3 m diameter vacuum vessel is lined with 36 rings of alternately oriented 4000 G samarium cobalt magnets, which create an axisymmetric multicusp that contains ∼14 m 3 of nearly magnetic field free plasma that is well confined and highly ionized (〉50%). At present, 8 lanthanum hexaboride (LaB 6 ) cathodes and 10 molybdenum anodes are inserted into the vessel and biased up to 500 V, drawing 40 A each cathode, ionizing a low pressure Ar or He fill gas and heating it. Up to 100 kW of electron cyclotron heating power is planned for additional electron heating. The LaB 6 cathodes are positioned in the magnetized edge to drive toroidal rotation through J  ×  B torques that propagate into the unmagnetized core plasma. Dynamo studies on MPDX require a high magnetic Reynolds number Rm  〉 1000, and an adjustable fluid Reynolds number 10 

Description: The cut-off of the Alfvén wave, caused by plasma collisions with neutrals in multi-component partially ionized plasmas, is discussed. Full multi-component theory is used, and similarities and differences regarding the classic magnetohydrodynamic theory are presented. It is shown that the cut-off in partially ionized plasma, in principle, may remain the same as predicted in classic magnetohydrodynamic works, although multi-component theory also yields some essential differences. Due to electric field, the ion motion is intrinsically two-dimensional and this results in additional forced oscillations of neutrals. One new small parameter, containing the ion inertial length, appears in the multi-component theory. This new small parameter is missing in the magnetohydrodynamic description, and it turns out that for some parameters it may be greater than the ions-to-neutrals density ratio which is the only small parameter in the magnetohydrodynamic description. Due to this the Alfvén wave behavior can become much different as compared to classic magnetohydrodynamic results. It is shown also that in plasmas with unmagnetized ions, Alfvén waves cannot be excited. This by all means applies to the solar photosphere where the ion collision frequency may be far above the ion gyro-frequency.

Description: Using a finite curvature beam, we investigate here the spatiotemporal focusing dynamics of a laser pulse in plasmas at X-ray wavelength. We trace the dependence of curvature parameter on the focusing of laser pulse and recognize that the self-focusing in plasma is more intense for the X -ray laser pulse with curved wavefront than with flat wavefront. The simulation results demonstrate that spatiotemporal focusing dynamics in plasmas can be controlled with the appropriate choice of beam-plasma parameters to explore the high intensity effects in X-ray regime.

Description: Intermittent chaos was observed in a glow discharge plasma as the system evolved from regular type of relaxation oscillations (of larger amplitude) to an irregular type of oscillations (of smaller amplitude) as the discharge voltage was increased. Floating potential fluctuations were analyzed by different statistical and spectral methods. Features like a gradual change in the normal variance of the interpeak time intervals, a dip in the skewness, and a hump in the kurtosis with variation in the control parameter have been seen, which are strongly indicative of intermittent behavior in the system. Detailed analysis also suggests that the intrinsic noise level in the experiment increases with the increasing discharge voltage. An attempt has been made to model the experimental observations by a second order nonlinear ordinary differential equation derived from the fluid equations for an unmagnetized plasma. Though the experiment had no external forcing, it was conjectured that the intrinsic noise in the experiment could be playing a vital role in the dynamics of the system. Hence, a constant bias and noise as forcing terms were included in the model. Results from the theoretical model are in close qualitative agreement with the experimental results.

Description: The electron-exchange effects on the charge capture process are investigated in degenerate quantum plasmas. The Bohr-Lindhard formalism with the effective interaction potential is employed to obtain the charge capture radius, capture probability, and capture cross section as functions of the impact parameter, projectile energy, electron-exchange parameter, Fermi energy, and plasmon energy. The result shows that the electron-exchange effect enhances the charge capture radius and the charge capture cross section in semiconductor quantum plasmas. It is also found that the charge capture radius and charge capture cross section increases with an increase of the Fermi energy and, however, decreases with increasing plasmon energy. Additionally, it is found that the peak position of the charge capture cross section is receded from the collision center with an increase of the electron-exchange parameter.

Description: An analytical theory is proposed for the kinetic electrostatic electron nonlinear (KEEN) waves originally found in simulations by Afeyan et al. [arXiv:1210.8105]. We suggest that KEEN waves represent saturated states of the negative mass instability (NMI) reported recently by Dodin et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 110 , 215006 (2013)]. Due to the NMI, trapped electrons form macroparticles that produce field oscillations at harmonics of the bounce frequency. At large enough amplitudes, these harmonics can phase-lock to the main wave and form stable nonlinear dissipationless structures that are nonstationary but otherwise similar to Bernstein-Greene-Kruskal modes. The theory explains why the formation of KEEN modes is sensitive to the excitation scenario and yields estimates that agree with the numerical results of Afeyan et al. A new type of KEEN wave may be possible at even larger amplitudes of the driving field than those used in simulations so far.

Description: The interaction of two lasers with a difference frequency near that of the ambient plasma frequency produces beat waves that can resonantly accelerate thermal electrons. These beat waves can be used to drive electron current and thereby embed magnetic fields into the plasma [Welch et al. , Phys. Rev. Lett. 109 , 225002 (2012)]. In this paper, we present two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations of the beat-wave current-drive process over a wide range of angles between the injected lasers, laser intensities, and plasma densities. We discuss the application of this technique to the magnetization of dense plasmas, motivated in particular by the problem of forming high-β plasma targets in a standoff manner for magneto-inertial fusion. The feasibility of a near-term experiment embedding magnetic fields using lasers with micron-scale wavelengths into a ∼10 18  cm −3 -density plasma is assessed.

Description: The origin of the low level of stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) observed in laser-plasma experiments carried out with a single laser speckle is investigated by means of three-dimensional simulations and modeling in the limit when the laser beam power P is well above the critical power for ponderomotive self-focusing We find that the order of magnitude of the time averaged reflectivities, together with the temporal and spatial SBS localization observed in our simulations, are correctly reproduced by our modeling. It is observed that, after a short transient stage, SBS reaches a significant level only (i) as long as the incident laser pulse is increasing in amplitude and (ii) in a single self-focused speckle located in the low-density front part of the plasma. In order to describe self-focusing in an inhomogeneous expanding plasma, we have derived a new Lagrangian density describing this process. Using then a variational approach, our model reproduces the position and the peak intensity of the self-focusing hot spot in the front part of the plasma density profile as well as the local density depletion in this hot spot. The knowledge of these parameters then makes it possible to estimate the spatial amplification of SBS as a function of the laser beam power and consequently to explain the experimentally observed SBS reflectivity, considerably reduced with respect to standard theory in the regime of large laser beam power.

Description: We present the simulation results of a Ku -band overmoded Cerenkov type high power microwave oscillator. A guiding magnetic field as low as 0.6 T has been operated in the device. Overmoded slow wave structures with gradually tapered vanes are used in order to increase power capacity and the efficiency of beam-wave interaction. The drift cavity is adopted to enhance the beam-wave interaction of the device. After numerical optimization, the designed generator with an output microwave power of 1.2 GW, a frequency of 13.8 GHz, and a power conversion efficiency as high as 38% can be achieved, when the diode voltage and current are, respectively, 540 kV and 5.8 kA. The power compositions of TM 0n modes of the output microwave have been analyzed, the results of which show that TM 01 mode takes over almost 95% of the power proportion.

Description: Electrostatic ion cyclotron waves are excited by axial ion beam in a dusty plasma via Cerenkov and slow cyclotron interaction. The dispersion relation of the instability is derived in the presence of positively/negatively charged dust grains. The minimum beam velocity needed for the excitation is estimated for different values of relative density of negatively charged dust grains. It is shown that the minimum beam velocity needed for excitation increases as the charge density carried by dust increases. Temperature of electrons and ions, charge and mass of dust grains, external static magnetic field and finite boundary of dusty plasma significantly modify the dispersion properties of these waves and play a crucial role in the growth of resonant ion cyclotron instability. The ion cyclotron modes with phase velocity comparable to the beam velocity possess a large growth rate. The maximum value of growth rate increases with the beam density and scales as the one-third power of the beam density in Cerenkov interaction and is proportional to the square root of beam density in slow cyclotron interaction.

Description: The oblique propagation of ion-acoustic soliton-cnoidal waves in a magnetized electron-positron-ion plasma with superthermal electrons is studied. Linear dispersion relations of the fast and slow ion-acoustic modes are discussed under the weak and strong magnetic field situations. By means of the reductive perturbation approach, Korteweg-de Vries equations governing ion-acoustic waves of fast and slow modes are derived, respectively. Explicit interacting soliton-cnoidal wave solutions are obtained by the generalized truncated Painlevé expansion. It is found that every peak of a cnoidal wave elastically interacts with a usual soliton except for some phase shifts. The influence of the electron superthermality, positron concentration, and magnetic field obliqueness on the soliton-cnoidal wave are investigated in detail.

Description: The large eddy simulation (LES) approach—solving numerically the large scales of a turbulent system and accounting for the small-scale influence through a model—is applied to nonlinear gyrokinetic systems that are driven by a number of different microinstabilities. Comparisons between modeled, lower resolution, and higher resolution simulations are performed for an experimental measurable quantity, the electron density fluctuation spectrum. Moreover, the validation and applicability of LES is demonstrated through a series of diagnostics based on the free energetics of the system.

Description: Any fully ionized collisionless plasma with finite random particle velocities contains electric and magnetic field fluctuations. The fluctuations can be of three different types: weakly damped, weakly propagating, or aperiodic. The kinetics of these fluctuations in general unmagnetized plasmas, governed by the competition of spontaneous emission, absorption, and stimulated emission processes, is investigated, extending the well-known results for weakly damped fluctuations. The generalized Kirchhoff radiation law for both collective and noncollective fluctuations is derived, which in stationary plasmas provides the equilibrium energy densities of electromagnetic fluctuations by the ratio of the respective spontaneous emission coefficient and the true absorption coefficient. As an illustrative example, the equilibrium energy densities of aperiodic transverse collective electric and magnetic fluctuations in an isotropic thermal electron-proton plasmas of density n e are calculated as | δ B | = ( δ B ) 2 = 2.8 ( n e m e c 2 ) 1 / 2 g 1 / 2 β e 7 / 4 and | δ E | = ( δ E ) 2 = 3.2 ( n e m e c 2 ) 1 / 2 g 1 / 3 β e 2 , where g and β e denote the plasma parameter and the thermal electron velocity in units of the speed of light, respectively. For densities and temperatures of the reionized early intergalactic medium, | δ B | = 6 · 10 − 18 G and | δ E | = 2 · 10 − 16 G result.

Description: The gas dynamics properties of a stationary arc plasma flows are studied through the numerical simulations. A two dimensional axis-symmetric turbulent magneto-hydrodynamic plasma model is developed with the commercial code ANSYS FLUENT. The reliable κ-ε model is used to account for turbulence. In this paper, the plasma is assumed to be a fluid following Navier–Stokes equations, respecting local thermodynamic equilibrium, and described by only one temperature. Distributions of the pressure, velocity, temperature, density, and electric potential inside of thus cascaded arc are obtained for an arc current density of 10 6  A/m 2 . The pressure inside the arc varies from 10 5  Pa to 100 Pa. The temperature at the arc axis can reach as high as 13 600 K. The electric potential drops uniformly along the axis with a magnitude of 160 V. In addition, distributions of the sonic velocity and Mach number are shown to describe supersonic behavior of thus cascaded arc, which have a good agreement with the analytical formula.

Description: An experimental investigation of the Boltzmann relation in the plasma bulk region and the presheath region was performed at low pressure inductively coupled plasma with bi-Maxwellian distribution. The spatial profiles of the electron energy distribution function (EEDF) were measured from the discharge center to the plasma boundary with an ion mean free path scale. The screening temperature was derived from the Einstein relation and the bi-Maxwellian EEDFs, and it has the same expression as the electron temperature in the ion directed velocity to the sheath edge in plasmas with the bi-Maxwellian EEDFs. Radial variations of the ambipolar potential and the presheath potential were calculated with the screening temperature and compared with the obtained value from the spatially measured EEDFs. It was shown that the ambipolar potential and the presheath potential are governed by the screening temperature.

Description: In this work, we present a hydrodynamic model to study the coupled quantum electron plasma oscillations (QEPO) for two dimensional (2D) degenerate plasmas, which incorporates all the essential quantum ingredients such as the statistical degeneracy pressure, electron-exchange, and electron quantum diffraction effect. Effects of diverse physical aspects like the electronic band-dispersion effect, the electron exchange-correlations and the quantum Bohm-potential as well as other important plasma parameters such as the coupling parameter (plasma separation) and the plasma electron number-densities on the linear response of the coupled system are investigated. By studying three different 2D plasma coupling types, namely, graphene-graphene, graphene-metalfilm, and metalfilm-metalfilm coupling configurations, it is remarked that the collective quantum effects can influence the coupled modes quite differently, depending on the type of the plasma configuration. It is also found that the slow and fast QEPO frequency modes respond very differently to the change in plasma parameters. Current findings can help in understanding of the coupled density oscillations in multilayer graphene, graphene-based heterojunctions, or nanofabricated integrated circuits.

Description: Numerical simulations and experimental measurements were combined to determine the ability of a plasma impedance probe (PIP) to measure plasma density and electron collision frequency in a plasma containing spatial gradients as well as time-varying oscillations in the plasma density. A PIP is sensitive to collision frequency through the width of the parallel resonance in the Re[Z]-vs.-frequency characteristic, while also being sensitive to electron density through the zero-crossing of the Im[Z]-vs.-frequency characteristic at parallel resonance. Simulations of the probe characteristic in a linear plasma gradient indicated that the broadening of Re[Z] due to the spatial gradient obscured the broadening due to electron collision frequency, preventing a quantitative measurement of the absolute collision frequency for gradients considered in this study. Simulation results also showed that the PIP is sensitive to relative changes in electron collision frequency in a spatial density gradient, but a second broadening effect due to time-varying oscillations made collision frequency measurements impossible. The time-varying oscillations had the effect of causing multiple zero-crossings in Im[Z] at parallel resonance. Results of experiments and simulations indicated that the lowest-frequency zero-crossing represented the lowest plasma density in the oscillations and the highest-frequency zero-crossing represented the highest plasma density in the oscillations, thus the PIP probe was found to be an effective tool to measure both the average plasma density as well as the maximum and minimum densities due to temporal oscillations.