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Turbulence in tokamaks generates radially sheared zonal flows. Their oscillatory counterparts, geodesic acoustic modes (GAMs), appear due to the action of the magnetic field curvature. The GAMs can be driven unstable by an anisotropic energetic particle (EP) population leading to the formation of global radial structures, called energetic-particle-driven geodesic acoustic modes (EGAMs). The EGAMs can redistribute EP energy to the bulk plasma through collisionless wave-particle interaction. In such a way, the EGAMs might contribute to the plasma heating. Thus, investigation of EGAM properties, especially in the velocity space, is necessary for precise understanding of the transport phenomena in tokamak plasmas. In this work, the nonlinear dynamics of EGAMs without considering the mode interaction with the turbulence is investigated with the help of a Mode-Particle-Resonance (MPR) diagnostic implemented in the global gyrokinetic particle-in-cell code ORB5. An ASDEX Upgrade discharge is chosen as a reference case for this investigation due to its rich EP nonlinear dynamics. An experimentally relevant magnetic field configuration, thermal species profiles, and an EP density profile are taken for EGAM chirping modeling and its comparison with available empirical data. The same magnetic configuration is used to explore energy transfer by the mode from the energetic particles to the thermal plasma including kinetic electron effects. For a given EGAM level, the plasma heating by the mode can be significantly enhanced by varying the EP parameters. Electron dynamics decreases the EGAM saturation amplitude and consequently reduces the plasma heating, even though the mode transfers its energy to thermal ions much more than to electrons.

On Linosa Island the pyroclastites of Cala Pozzolana di Ponente have been affected by post depositional alteration phenomena. Field and laboratory study point out that this pyroclastic deposit was affected by hydrothermal circulation with formation of secondary minerals like smectite, zeolites, calcite. The transformation processes were accomplished in two stages; a first one was brought about by the circulation of abundant hydrothermal fluids that reacted with the glass fragments producing a thin regular crust of smectite surrounding glass fragments and a second one, responsible for the zeolite growth, was accomplished by fluids enriched in alkalis and calcium released by the altered glass, in conditions of decreasing fluid circulation and falling temperature. -from Authors

A new diagnostic has been developed to investigate the wave-particle interaction in the phase-space in gyrokinetic particle-in-cell codes. Based on the projection of energy transfer terms onto the velocity space, the technique has been implemented and tested in the global code ORB5 and it gives an opportunity to localise velocity domains of maximum wave-plasma energy exchange for separate species. Moreover, contribution of different species and resonances can be estimated as well, by integrating the energy transfer terms in corresponding velocity domains. This Mode-Plasma-Resonance (MPR) diagnostic has been applied to study the dynamics of the Energetic-particle-induced Geodesic Acoustic Modes (EGAMs) in an ASDEX Upgrade shot, by analysing the influence of different species on the mode time evolution. Since the equations on which the diagnostic is based, are valid in both linear and nonlinear cases, this approach can be applied to study nonlinear plasma effects. As a possible future application, the technique can be used, for instance, to investigate the nonlinear EGAM frequency chirping, or the plasma heating due to the damping of the EGAMs., 39 pages, 21 figures