Plasma Physics
We present fully kinetic two-dimensional, three-velocity-component (2D3V) PIConGPU simulations of a three-beam direct-drive interaction with a 15 $\mu$m solid-density cryogenic hydrogen cylinder, establishing a predictive numerical baseline…
Space plasmas are generally characterized by non-Maxwellian distributions with suprathermal populations, as routinely revealed by in situ observations. Such departures from standard Maxwellian distributions can be understood as signatures…
From the synthesis and evolution of the elements to the celestial nuclear processes of stellar explosions and neutron star mergers, nuclear physics is the foundation of our understanding of the universe. After more than a century of…
We report the first observation on the EXL-50U spherical torus that energetic particles injected by neutral beam injection (NBI) can be stably accelerated to significantly higher energies - reaching up to 2.5 times the injection energy,…
We present results from pulsed-power-driven magnetic reconnection experiments, in which we drove two exploding wire arrays in parallel to produce colliding plasma flows with anti-parallel magnetic fields of 1.2$\pm$0.2 T. The experimental…
Full-f global gyrokinetic simulations of the plasma boundary have until now required heroic computational efforts and case-by-case expert intervention, precluding systematic parameter scans. Here we demonstrate a paradigm shift: hundreds of…
We formulate axion magnetohydrodynamics beyond the ideal limit, retaining axion inertia and the essential physics of non-ideal plasmas from first principles. In this framework, regions where magnetic flux freezing breaks down acquire a new…
We investigate numerically the time evolution of velocity and magnetic field fluctuations in a coronal loop, focusing on the dynamics due to both phase mixing and turbulent cascade. The intensity, doppler velocity and non-thermal broadening…
Reliable position and shape control in tokamak plasmas requires accurate real-time regulation of several strongly coupled shape parameters. The control vectors that disentangle these couplings, referred to as \textit{virtual circuits}…
Attosecond electron pulses enable real-time probing of ultrafast matter dynamics, yet conventional modulation schemes suffer from drastically shortened longitudinal focal lengths when targeting sub-attosecond durations. To address this…
Merging direct and indirect-drive has long been viewed as an optimal hybrid laser-fusion scheme that combines the uniformity of x rays with the efficiency of direct illumination. We present the first integrated 2D simulations of hybrid…
The interaction of electrically charged particles with magnetic fields is a fundamental problem in several areas of physics. An example is the motion of energetic particles through a magnetized plasma. The most accurate and reliable way to…
TokaMind is a multi-modal transformer (MMT) foundation model pre-trained on tokamak plasma diagnostics data from MAST, where it was shown to outperform CNN-based approaches on fusion benchmarks. We investigate whether its learned…
An analytical formulation of a radially polarized laser pulse propagating in a homogeneous, magnetized plasma is presented using Lorentz force, continuity and Maxwells equations. Perturbation technique and quasi-static approximation (QSA)…
Recent developments in high peak-power table-top laser systems reaching highly relativistic light intensities have led to significant advances in laser-driven particle acceleration schemes (mainly the laser wakefield acceleration, LWFA)…
This is the six month progress report to Fusion Energy Science (FES) and the American Science Cloud (AmSC) on the MPEX AI Digtial Twins project that was started in October 2025. There are two milestones to demonstrate the Artificial…
Qualification of components operating in future fusion power plants will be heavily reliant on simulations of component behaviour. The lack of representative test environments for many aspects of the expected operating environment will…
Conductivity models for warm dense matter inform simulations of planetary structure and fusion experiments. State-of-the-art conductivity calculations based on density functional theory approximate many-body physics and neglect…
Ion temperature clamping -- the saturation of the ion temperature regardless of heating power -- is observed across stellarator experiments. We propose a minimal model based on Anderson localisation. Starting from a reduced fluid model for…
This work investigates toroidal momentum transport in type-I ELMy H-mode plasmas in the ASDEX Upgrade tokamak, focusing on the formation of hollow rotation profiles under strong electron cyclotron resonance heating (ECRH). Applying the…