Related papers: Microstability of $\beta \sim 1$ tokamak equilibri…
In large hot tokamaks like JET, the width of the reconnecting layer for resistive modes is determined by semi-collisional electron dynamics and is much less than the ion Larmor radius. Firstly a dispersion relation valid in this regime is…
Microinstabilities drive turbulent fluctuations in inhomogeneous, magnetized plasmas. In the context of magnetic confinement fusion devices, this leads to an enhanced transport of particles, momentum, and energy, thereby degrading…
Tokamak operational regimes with small edge localized modes (ELMs) could be a solution to the problem of large transient heat loads in future fusion reactors because they provide quasi-continuous exhaust while keeping a good plasma…
We present particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations of minority energetic protons in deuterium plasmas, which demonstrate a collective instability responsible for emission near the lower hybrid frequency and its harmonics. The simulations capture…
The rapid deposition of energy by Edge Localised Modes (ELMs) onto plasma facing components, is a potentially serious issue for large Tokamaks such as ITER and DEMO. The trigger for ELMs is believed to be the ideal Magnetohydrodynamic…
An analysis of instability dynamics in a stochastic magnetic field is presented for the tractable case of the resistive interchange. Externally prescribed static magnetic perturbations convert the eigenmode problem to a stochastic…
Plasma disruptions represent a critical challenge for high-performance tokamak operations, as they can compromise machine integrity and reduce operational availability. Although future fusion devices essentially need to incorporate…
The plasma edge of a tokamak configuration is characterized by turbulent dynamics leading to enhanced transport. We construct a simplified 3D Hasegawa--Wakatani model reducing to a single partial differential equation for the turbulent…
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…
In magnetic confinement fusion devices, the ratio of the plasma pressure to the magnetic field energy, $\beta$, can become sufficiently large that electromagnetic microinstabilities become unstable, driving turbulence that distorts or…
Pedestal modelling is crucial to predict the performance of future fusion devices. Current modelling efforts suffer either from a lack of kinetic physics, or an excess of computational complexity. To ameliorate these problems, we take a…
In this work, we present first-of-their-kind nonlinear local gyrokinetic simulations of electromagnetic turbulence at mid-radius in the burning plasma phase of the conceptual high-$\beta$, reactor-scale, tight-aspect-ratio tokamak STEP…
Microtearing modes are an important drive of turbulent heat transport in present-day fusion plasmas. We investigate their linear stability under very-low collisionality regimes, expected for the next generations of devices, using…
The confinement of energetic particles (EPs) generated by fusion reactions and external heating methods is crucial for the performance of future fusion devices. However, EP transport can occur due to their interaction with electromagnetic…
Available energy (\AE{}), which quantifies the maximum amount of thermal energy that may be liberated and converted into instabilities and turbulence, has shown to be a useful metric for predicting saturated energy fluxes in…
A 1-D linear gyrokinetic code called AWECS is developed to study the kinetic excitation of Alfvenic instabilities in a high-beta tokamak plasma, with beta being the ratio of thermal to magnetic pressure. It is designed to describe physics…
We investigate the linear tearing instability in weakly collisional plasmas using a non-ideal gyrotropic-MHD framework, uncovering a previously unknown scaling relation for the instability growth rate in high-$\beta$ environments. Even…
A simulated annealing (SA) relaxation method is used for calculation of high-beta reduced magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) equilibria in toroidal geometry. The SA method, based on artificial dynamics derived from the MHD Hamiltonian structure, is…
Accurately predicting plasma behavior based on discharge configurations is essential for the safe and efficient operation of tokamak experiments. While physics-based integrated modeling codes provide valuable insights, their high…
Instability to high toroidal mode number ($n$) ballooning modes has been proposed as the primary gradient-limiting mechanism for tokamak equilibria with negative triangularity ($\delta$) shaping, preventing access to strong H-mode regimes…