Related papers: Energetic bounds on gyrokinetic instabilities. Par…
Bounding energetic growth of gyrokinetic instabilities is a complementary approach to linear instability analyses involving normal eigenmodes. Previous work has focused on upper bounds which are valid linearly and nonlinearly. However, if…
We introduce modes of instantaneous optimal growth of free energy for the fully electromagnetic gyrokinetic equations. We demonstrate how these "optimal modes" arise naturally from the free energy balance equation, allowing its convenient…
This is the first of two papers about collisionless, electrostatic micro-instabilities in stellarators, with an emphasis on trapped-particle modes. It is found that, in so-called maximum-$J$ configurations, trapped-particle instabilities…
Optimised stellarators and other magnetic-confinement devices having the property that the average magnetic curvature is favourable for all particle orbits are called maximum-$J$ devices, and have recently been shown to be immune to…
Free energy, widely used as a measure of turbulence intensity in weakly collisional plasmas, has been recently found to be a suitable basis to describe both linear and nonlinear growth in a wide class gyrokinetic systems. The simplicity…
We present herein the results of a linear gyrokinetic analysis of electromagnetic microinstabilites in the conceptual high-$\beta$, reactor-scale, tight-aspect-ratio tokamak STEP (Spherical Tokamak for Energy Production,…
Upper bounds on the growth of free energy in gyrokinetics are derived. These bounds apply to all local gyrokinetic instabilities in the geometry of a flux tube, i.e. a slender volume of plasma aligned with the magnetic field, regardless of…
Theories of ion-scale microinstabilities in tokamaks and stellarators typically assume that the passing electrons respond adiabatically due to their fast propagation speed. However, when the magnetic shear becomes sufficiently small,…
Spherical tokamaks (STs) have been shown to possess properties desirable for a fusion power plant such as achieving high plasma ? and having increased vertical stability. To understand the confinement properties that might be expected in…
A family of rigorous upper bounds on the growth rate of local gyrokinetic instabilities in magnetized plasmas is derived from the evolution equation for the Helmholtz free energy. These bounds hold for both electrostatic and electromagnetic…
Ion-gyroradius-scale microinstabilities typically have a frequency comparable to the ion transit frequency. Due to the small electron-to-ion mass ratio and the large electron transit frequency, it is conventionally assumed that passing…
Accurate modeling of core instabilities in tokamak plasmas is essential to understand the underlying physical mechanisms and their impact on plasma confinement. The ideal stability of the internal kink mode and the m = 1 collisionless…
Plasma equilibria reconstructed from the Mega-Amp Spherical Tokamak (MAST) have sufficient resolution to capture plasma evolution during the short period between edge-localized modes (ELMs). Immediately after the ELM steep gradients in…
Recent gyrokinetic stability calculations have revealed that the spherical tokamak is susceptible to tearing parity instabilities with length scales of a few ion Larmor radii perpendicular to the magnetic field lines. Here we investigate…
A two-fold analysis of electromagnetic core tokamak instabilities in the framework of the gyrokinetic theory is presented. First principle theoretical foundations of the gyrokinetic theory are used to explain and justify the numerical…
Collisionless shocks are known to induce turbulence via upstream ion reflection within the precursor region. This study elucidates the properties of electrostatic and electromagnetic instabilities, exploring their role over the…
Three dimensional electromagnetic gyrofluid simulations of the ideal ballooning mode blowout scenario for tokamak edge localized modes (ELMs) are presented. Special emphasis is placed on energetic diagnosis, examining changes in the growth…
A gyrokinetic theory is developed under a set of orderings applicable to the edge region of tokamaks and other magnetic confinement devices, as well as to internal transport barriers. The result is a practical set equations that is valid…
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…
Solutions to a model 2D eigenmode equation describing micro-instabilities in tokamak plasmas are presented that demonstrate a sensitivity of the mode structure and stability to plasma profiles. In narrow regions of parameter space, with…