Related papers: Gyrokinetic simulations on zonal flow-turbulence s…
Turbulence driven zonal flows play an important role in fusion devices since they improve plasma confinement by limiting the level of anomalous transport. Current theories mostly focus on flow excitation but do not self-consistently…
Predicting the dynamics of a thermonuclear plasma during a magnetic confinement experiment is fundamental in order to make nuclear fusion a reliable source of energy. The development of a set of equations describing the plasma evolution on…
Gyrokinetics is a rich and rewarding playground to study some of the mysteries of modern physics. In this thesis I present work, motivated by the quest for fusion energy, which seeks to uncover some of the inner workings of turbulence in…
Strongly driven ion-scale turbulence in tokamak plasmas is shown to be regulated by a new propagating zonal flow mode, the toroidal secondary mode, which is nonlinearly supported by the turbulence. The mode grows and propagates due to the…
The impact of magnetic geometry on zonal-flow generation in ion temperature gradient driven turbulence is investigated by means of linear and nonlinear gyrokinetic simulations. The modulation of geodesic curvature on various configurations…
We present a theory of the nonlinear growth of zonal flows in magnetized plasma turbulence, by the mechanism of secondary instability. The theory is derived for general magnetic geometry, and is thus applicable to both tokamaks and…
This paper describes a conceptual framework for understanding kinetic plasma turbulence as a generalized form of energy cascade in phase space. It is emphasized that conversion of turbulent energy into thermodynamic heat is only achievable…
Impacts of isotope ion mass on trapped electron mode (TEM) driven turbulence and zonal flows in magnetically confined fusion plasmas are investigated. Gyrokinetic simulations of TEM-driven turbulence in three-dimensional magnetic…
The vast separation dividing the characteristic times of energy confinement and turbulence in the core of toroidal plasmas makes first-principles prediction on long timescales extremely challenging. Here we report the demonstration of a…
Determining the physical mechanisms that extract energy from turbulent fluctuations in weakly collisional magnetized plasmas is necessary for a more complete characterization of the behavior of a variety of space and astrophysical plasmas.…
A set of equations is derived describing the macroscopic transport of particles and energy in a thermonuclear plasma on the energy confinement time. The equations thus derived allow studying collisional and turbulent transport…
In this paper a conservation equation is derived for the radially dependent entropy in toroidal geometry using the local approximation of the gyro-kinetic framework. This equation naturally leads to an operative definition for the…
Zonal modes are central to magnetic confinement because their radial shears regulate turbulence and transport. While the generation of these flows is well understood, the mechanisms limiting their persistence in collisionless regimes remain…
We propose a quantitative model of ion temperature gradient driven turbulence in toroidal magnetized plasmas. In this model, the turbulence is regulated by zonal flows, i.e. mode saturation occurs by a zonal-flow-mediated energy cascade…
In an inhomogeneous magnetised plasma the transport of energy and particles perpendicular to the magnetic field is in general mainly caused by quasi two-dimensional turbulent fluid mixing. The physics of turbulence and structure formation…
The first nonlinear gyrokinetic simulations obtained using a moment approach based on the Hermite-Laguerre decomposition of the distribution function are presented, implementing advanced models for the collision operator. Turbulence in a…
A review of non-diffusive transport in fluids and plasmas is presented. In the fluid context, non-diffusive chaotic transport by Rossby waves in zonal flows is studied following a Lagrangian approach. In the plasma physics context the…
Nonlinear entropy transfer processes in toroidal ion temperature gradient (ITG) and electron temperature gradient (ETG) driven turbulence are investigated based on the gyrokinetic entropy balance relations for zonal and non-zonal modes,…
Boundary plasma physics plays an important role in tokamak confinement, but is difficult to simulate in a gyrokinetic code due to the scale-inseparable nonlocal multi-physics in magnetic separatrix and open magnetic field geometry. Neutral…
The properties of the boundary plasma in a tokamak are now recognized to play a key role in determining the achievable fusion power and the lifetimes of plasma-facing components. Accurate quantitative modeling and improved qualitative…