The effects of line-tying on resistive tearing instability in slab geometry is studied within the framework of reduced magnetohydrodynamics (RMHD).citep{KadomtsevP1974,Strauss1976} It is found that line-tying has a stabilizing effect. The tearing mod
e is stabilized when the system length $L$ is shorter than a critical length $L_{c}$, which is independent of the resistivity $eta$. When $L$ is not too much longer than $L_{c}$, the growthrate $gamma$ is proportional to $eta$ . When $L$ is sufficiently long, the tearing mode scaling $gammasimeta^{3/5}$ is recovered. The transition from $gammasimeta$ to $gammasimeta^{3/5}$ occurs at a transition length $L_{t}simeta^{-2/5}$.
For enhancing the core heating efficiency in electron-driven fast ignition, we proposed the fast electron beam guiding using externally applied longitudinal magnetic fields. Based on the PIC simulations for the FIREX-class experiments, we demonstrate
d the sufficient beam guiding performance in the collisional dense plasma by kT-class external magnetic fields for the case with moderate mirror ratio (~<10 ). Boring of the mirror field was found through the formation of magnetic pipe structure due to the resistive effects, which indicates a possibility of beam guiding in high mirror field for higher laser intensity and/or longer pulse duration.
The turbulence observed in the scrape-off-layer of a tokamak is often characterized by intermittent events of bursty nature, a feature which raises concerns about the prediction of heat loads on the physical boundaries of the device. It appears thus
necessary to delve into the statistical properties of turbulent physical fields such as density, electrostatic potential and temperature, focusing on the mathematical expression of tails of the probability distribution functions. The method followed here is to generate statistical information from time-traces of the plasma density stemming from Braginskii-type fluid simulations, and check this against a first-principles theoretical model. The analysis of the numerical simulations indicates that the probability distribution function of the intermittent process contains strong exponential tails, as predicted by the analytical theory.
We derive and solve by the spectral method the equations for a neutral system of ultra-relativistic electrons that are compressed to the radius of the nucleus and subject to a driving force. This driving force can be thought of as originating from a
nuclear breathing mode, a possibility we discuss in detail.
The radiation reaction radically influences the electron motion in an electromagnetic standing wave formed by two super-intense counter-propagating laser pulses. Depending on the laser intensity and wavelength, either classical or quantum mode of rad
iation reaction prevail, or both are strong. When radiation reaction dominates, electron motion evolves to limit cycles and strange attractors. This creates a new framework for high energy physics experiments on an interaction of energetic charged particle beams and colliding super-intense laser pulses.
Simulations of decaying magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence are performed with a fluid and a kinetic code. The initial condition is an ensemble of long-wavelength, counter-propagating, shear-Alfv{e}n waves, which interact and rapidly generate strong
MHD turbulence. The total energy is conserved and the rate of turbulent energy decay is very similar in both codes, although the fluid code has numerical dissipation whereas the kinetic code has kinetic dissipation. The inertial range power spectrum index is similar in both the codes. The fluid code shows a perpendicular wavenumber spectral slope of $k_{perp}^{-1.3}$. The kinetic code shows a spectral slope of $k_{perp}^{-1.5}$ for smaller simulation domain, and $k_{perp}^{-1.3}$ for larger domain. We estimate that collisionless damping mechanisms in the kinetic code can account for the dissipation of the observed nonlinear energy cascade. Current sheets are geometrically characterized. Their lengths and widths are in good agreement between the two codes. The length scales linearly with the driving scale of the turbulence. In the fluid code, their thickness is determined by the grid resolution as there is no explicit diffusivity. In the kinetic code, their thickness is very close to the skin-depth, irrespective of the grid resolution. This work shows that kinetic codes can reproduce the MHD inertial range dynamics at large scales, while at the same time capturing important kinetic physics at small scales.
The impact of resonant magnetic perturbations (RMPs) on the power required to access H-mode is examined experimentally on MAST. Applying RMP in n=2,3,4 and 6 configurations causes significant delays to the timing of the L-H transition at low applied
fields and prevents the transition at high fields. The experiment was primarily performed at RMP fields sufficient to cause moderate increases in ELM frequency, f mitigated/f natural~3. To obtain H-mode with RMPs at this field, an increase of injected beam power is required of at least 50% for n=3 and n=4 RMP and 100% for n=6 RMP. In terms of power threshold, this corresponds to increases of at least 20% for n=3 and n=4 RMPs and 60% for n=6 RMPs. This RMP affected power threshold is found to increase with RMP magnitude above a certain minimum perturbed field, below which there is no impact on the power threshold. Extrapolations from these results indicate large increases in the L-H power threshold will be required for discharges requiring large mitigated ELM frequency.
We show that oppositely directed fluxes of energy and magnetic helicity coexist in the inertial range in fully developed magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence with small-scale sources of magnetic helicity. Using a helical shell model of MHD turbulence
, we study the high Reynolds number magnetohydrodynamic turbulence for helicity injection at a scale that is much smaller than the scale of energy injection. In a short range of scales larger than the forcing scale of magnetic helicity, a bottleneck-like effect appears, which results in a local reduction of the spectral slope. The slope changes in a domain with a high level of relative magnetic helicity, which determines that part of the magnetic energy related to the helical modes at a given scale. If the relative helicity approaches unity, the spectral slope tends to $-3/2$. We show that this energy pileup is caused by an inverse cascade of magnetic energy associated with the magnetic helicity. This negative energy flux is the contribution of the pure magnetic-to-magnetic energy transfer, which vanishes in the non-helical limit. In the context of astrophysical dynamos, our results indicate that a large-scale dynamo can be affected by the magnetic helicity generated at small scales. The kinetic helicity, in particular, is not involved in the process at all. An interesting finding is that an inverse cascade of magnetic energy can be provided by a small-scale source of magnetic helicity fluctuations without a mean injection of magnetic helicity.
Effects of nonlinearity in Thomson scattering of a high intensity laser pulse from electrons are analyzed. Analytic expressions for laser pulse shaping in amplitude and frequency are obtained which control spectrum broadening for arbitrarily high las
er pulse intensities. These analytic solutions allow prediction of the spectral form and required laser parameters to avoid broadening. The predictions are validated by numerical calculations. This control over the scattered radiation bandwidth allows of narrow bandwidth sources to be produced using high scattering intensities, which in turn greatly improves scattering yield for future x- and gamma-ray sources.
Various MHD (magnetohydrodynamic) equilibrium tools, some of which being recently developed or considerably updated, are used on the COMPASS tokamak at IPP Prague. MHD equilibrium is a fundamental property of the tokamak plasma, whose knowledge is re
quired for many diagnostics and modelling tools. Proper benchmarking and validation of equilibrium tools is thus key for interpreting and planning tokamak experiments. We present here benchmarks and comparisons to experimental data of the EFIT++ reconstruction code [L.C. Appel et al., EPS 2006, P2.184], the free-boundary equilibrium code FREEBIE [J.-F. Artaud, S.H. Kim, EPS 2012, P4.023], and a rapid plasma boundary reconstruction code VacTH [B. Faugeras et al., PPCF 56, 114010 (2014)]. We demonstrate that FREEBIE can calculate the equilibrium and corresponding poloidal field (PF) coils currents consistently with EFIT++ reconstructions from experimental data. Both EFIT++ and VacTH can reconstruct equilibria generated by FREEBIE from synthetic, optionally noisy diagnostic data. Hence, VacTH is suitable for real-time control. Optimum reconstruction parameters are estimated.
