Plasma Physics
Two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations in the (radial-azimuthal) plane perpendicular to the axial direction of a cylindrical ExB Penning discharge are presented. The low-pressure discharge is self-consistently supported by plasma…
We apply topological methods to better understand how the magnetic field in the stellarator edge can be diverted away from the confined region. Our primary method is calculating the winding numbers of closed contours, which gives…
Far Infrared interferometry is the main diagnostics method for electron density measurements in medium sized tokamaks. The transverse density gradients of plasma produce refractive effect, and the probing radiation does not propagate along…
The electron velocity distribution function in the plasma, formed by gas ionization with a sub-nanosecond, hundreds of megawatts power level microwave pulse, is studied by a theoretical model and by numerical 3D simulations, the results of…
Laser-Wakefield Accelerators (LWFA) running at kHz repetition rates hold great potential for applications. They typically operate with low-energy, highly compressed laser pulses focused in high-pressure gas targets. Experiments have shown…
The transition between two-dimensional hydrodynamic turbulence and quasi-one-dimensional zonostrophic turbulence is examined in the modified Hasegawa-Wakatani system, which is considered as a minimal model of $\beta$-plane-like drift-wave…
While boundary plasmas in present-day tokamaks generally fall in a fluid regime, neutral species near the boundary often require kinetic models due to long mean-free-paths compared to characteristic spatial scales in the region. Monte-Carlo…
We derive a set of simplified equations that can be used for numerical studies of reduced magnetohydrodynamic turbulence within a small patch of the radially expanding solar wind. We allow the box to be either stationary in the Sun's frame…
This paper investigates the electron dynamics in three distinct discharge modes of a cross-field atmospheric pressure plasma jet, the COST-Jet. Thereby, the discharge modes are the non-neutral, the quasi-neutral, and the constricted mode.…
The theory of plasmas, that is collectives of charged particles, is developed using the coordinate-free and geometric methods of exterior calculus. This dramatically simplifies the algebra and gives a geometric physical interpretation. The…
Asymmetries in deuterium-tritium (D-T) particle transport and divertor pumping speeds are shown to enhance tritium self-sufficiency in fusion power plants. Using a diffusive particle transport model that links the plasma core, separatrix,…
The impact of ion pressure anisotropy on the energy cascade rate of Hall-MHD turbulence with biadiabatic ions and isothermal electrons is evaluated in three-dimensional direct numerical simulations, using the exact (or third-order) law…
A technique, volumetric power optimization, is presented for enhancing the power output of magnetic confinement fusion devices. Applied to a tokamak, this approach involves shifting the burning plasma region to a larger plasma volume while…
Non-thermal photo-ionized plasmas are now established in the laboratory, and require models that treat the atomic processes and electron distribution self-consistently. We investigate the effects of inelastic thermalization in iron under…
In atoms undergoing ionisation, an abrupt re-arrangement of free and bound electrons can lead to the ejection of another bound electron (shake-off). The spectroscopic signatures of shake-off have been predicted and observed in atoms and…
We present a theoretical framework connecting the pseudo-Chern number in momentum space to the spectral flow index in phase space for continuous media, with specific applications to topological Langmuir-cyclotron waves (TLCWs) in magnetized…
We present a novel flow-based kinetic approach, inspired by continuous normalizing flows, for plasma simulation that unifies the complementary strengths of direct Vlasov solvers and particle-based methods. By tracking the distribution…
Negative triangularity (NT) tokamak configurations have several key benefits including sufficient core confinement, improved power handling, and reduced edge pressure gradients that allow for edge-localized mode (ELM) free operation. We…
We apply the method of moments to the relativistic Boltzmann-Vlasov equation and derive the equations of motion for the irreducible moments of arbitrary tensor-rank of the invariant single-particle distribution function. We study two cases,…
We present two-dimensional global simulations of mitigated and vertically unstable disruptions in ITER in the presence of runaway electrons. An elongated plasma in free-boundary equilibrium is subjected to an artificial thermal quench and…