Plasma Physics
The derivation of the oscillation-center quasilinear theory in an unmagnetized plasma by Dewar \cite{Dewar:1973} is rederived by Lie-transform perturbation method.
Compact, stable, and versatile laser-driven ion sources hold great promise for applications ranging from medicine to materials science and fundamental physics. While single-shot sources have demonstrated favorable beam properties, including…
Ultra-magnetized plasmas, where the magnetic field strength exceeds the Schwinger field of about $B_{Q}\approx4\times10^{13}$~gauss, become of great scientific interest, thanks to the current advances in laser-plasma experiments and…
Laser-driven capacitor-coil targets provide a compact platform for generating strong magnetic fields and are widely used in magnetized high-energy-density plasma experiments. In addition to magnetic-field generation, these targets also…
The electron density at the separatrix ($n_{e,\mathrm{sep}}$) plays a central role in balancing energy confinement, detachment achievement, and ELM suppression in tokamaks, thereby influencing core-edge integration. To study what determines…
Laser wakefield acceleration can generate a femtosecond-scale broadband X-ray betatron radiation pulse from electrons accelerated by an intense laser pulse in a plasma. The micrometer-scale of the source makes wakefield betatron radiation…
High laser intensities enable the production of electron-positron pairs from bright gamma rays passing through strong fields. Potentially the most promising approach for all-optical experiments in the near term uses dense but higher…
The first high-power (> 3 MW) H-mode experiments using a double-null X-point-target (XPT) divertor configuration have been performed on MAST-U. The XPT geometry is obtained by combining a large strike point radius, similar to the Super-X…
We discuss the conceptual design of a spatially-resolved spectroscopy system of Thomson scattering with high wavelength resolution capable of measuring the shape of electron velocity distribution functions in magnetically confined plasmas.…
Runaway electron termination on plasma facing components can trigger material explosions that are accompanied by the expulsion of fast solid debris. Due to the large kinetic energies of the ejected dust particles, their subsequent…
Shattered pellet injection (SPI) is selected for the disruption mitigation system in ITER, due to deeper penetration, expected assimilation efficiency and prompt material delivery. This article describes non-linear magnetohydrodynamic (MHD)…
Quasi-Bessel beams produced by axiparabolas are increasingly used in high-intensity laser applications, yet their longitudinal profiles exhibit unwanted oscillations that limit their effectiveness. Here we identify the physical origin of…
Due to any toroidal current column, the magnetic field is found to be sensitive as well as insensitive to its cross-sectional area depending on location of subject point, as predicted by numerical approaches [S. Aich, J. Thakkar, and J.…
The magnetic compression experiment at General Fusion was a repetitive non-destructive test to study plasma physics applicable to magnetic target fusion compression. A compact torus (CT) is formed with a co-axial gun into a containment…
Magnetic islands strongly influence cross-field electron transport in magnetized plasmas. In particular, bifurcations of the island topology modify the number and location of O-points, X-points, and separatrix boundaries, thereby altering…
Fast, counter-streaming plasma outflows drive magnetic field amplification, plasma heating, and particle acceleration in numerous astrophysical environments, from supernova remnant shocks to active galactic nuclei jets. Understanding how,…
To better understand the dependence of the magnetic field structure in the plasma edge on the plasma boundary shape, in the context of X-point and island divertor designs, we define and develop a class of stellarators called umbilic…
Outstanding advances in solid-state laser technology, employing the optical parametric chirped-pulse-amplification (OPCPA) technique, have led physicists to focus laser pulses to highly-relativistic intensities which led to novel schemes…
The non-thermal particles escaping from collisionless shocks into the surrounding medium can trigger a non-resonant streaming instability that converts parts of their drift kinetic energy into large amplitude magnetic field perturbations,…
The nonlinear decay of Langmuir/$\mathcal{Z}$-mode waves into electromagnetic $\mathcal{Z}$-mode wave radiation at the plasma frequency is observed for the first time in the solar wind. This finding was enabled by the unprecedented…