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Heat transport across a non-local stochastic magnetic field was studied for the first time. Eleven incompact low m perturbed magnetic islands were used in our calculation. Parallel heat diffusion coefficient to the perpendicular coefficient was found still to be a key factor in influencing the effective radial heat conductivity and the results in this paper were compared with earlier studies in a local stochastic magnetic field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The issue of magnetic confinement in magnetic fusion devices is addressed within a purely magnetic approach. Using some Hamiltonian models for the magnetic field lines, the dual impact of low magnetic shear is shown in a unified way. Away from resonances, it induces a drastic enhancement of magnetic confinement that favors robust internal transport barriers (ITBs) and stochastic transport reduction. When low shear occurs for values of the winding of the magnetic field lines close to low-order rationals, the amplitude thresholds of the resonant modes that break internal transport barriers by allowing a radial stochastic transport of the magnetic field lines may be quite low. The approach can be applied to assess the robustness versus magnetic perturbations of general (almost) integrable magnetic steady states, including nonaxisymmetric ones such as the important single-helicity steady states. This analysis puts a constraint on the tolerable mode amplitudes compatible with ITBs and may be proposed as a possible explanation of diverse experimental and numerical signatures of their collapses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By integrating the electric field integral equation and the transmission line equation, an iterative solution for the electromagnetic field coupling to buried wires is obtained. At first we establish the integral equation which the difference between solutions of the integral equation and the telegraph equation satisfies. Then the solution of the telegraph equation is used to approximate the solution of this integral equation. Every following step of iteration is an improvement on the transmission line solution, and with several iterations, a well approximation to the solution of electric field integral equation can be obtained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous work has summarized the physics and first results of benchmarking the trapped gyro-Landau-fluid (TGLF) model for turbulent transport driven by trapped ion and electron modes, ion and electron temperature gradient (ETG) modes, and electromagnetic kinetic ballooning modes including the effects of shaped geometry. Recently, an improved collision model was implemented which provides a more accurate fit to a transport database of nonlinear collisional GYRO [J. Candy and R. E. Waltz, J. Comput. Phys. 186, 545 (2003)] simulations of long wavelength driftwave turbulence. The impact of the new collision model on TGLF modeling results was unknown. Using the improved TGLF model we obtain excellent agreement with the ion and electron temperature profiles from 30 DIII-D [A. Mahdavi and J. L. Luxon, Fusion Sci. Technol. 48, 2 (2005)] hybrid discharges. The transport results show that the electron energy transport tends to be dominated by short wavelength ETG modes in cases where the ion energy transport approaches neoclassical levels. The hybrid regime has significant energy confinement improvement from E×B velocity shear which is well predicted by TGLF. Weak magnetic shear and low safety factor are also shown to enhance the hybrid regime energy confinement. In high normalized β hybrids, we find that finite β effects noticably reduce the predicted electron energy transport and improve agreement with the measured electron temperature profiles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A neural network (NN) implementation of an adaptive optimal stochastic output feedback control is developed to stabilize the resistive wall mode (RWM), a critically important instability in fusion machines like tokamaks. The design of an adaptive optimal stochastic output feedback control was discussed and reported earlier by Sun, Sen, and Longman. The system dynamics is experimentally determined via the extended least square method with an exponential forgetting factor and covariance resetting. The optimal output feedback controller is redesigned periodically online based on the system identification. The output measurements and past control inputs are used to construct new control inputs. These are achieved by an architecture of NNs consisting of a pool of sequentially linked Hopfield networks and implemented in hardware with digital NN processors made by the Accurate Automation Corporation. The simulations have shown that the NN adaptive output controller can stabilize the time-dependent RWM in a slowly evolving tokamak discharge. This is accomplished within a time delay of the inverse of the nonlinear growth rate, which is the time scale of the development of the possibly dangerous levels of fluctuations. This stabilization is similar to that of the simulation with a C++ implementation. It is expected that significant gains can be achieved for the systems of a higher order, which are to be found in future fusion devices. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The various terms in the radial force balance in the edge plasma are evaluated using experimental data from the low (L) and high (H) confinement phase of a DIII-D [J. Luxon, Nucl. Fusion 42, 614 (2002)] discharge in order to investigate the differences in the radial force balance among the several electromagnetic and pressure gradient forces in L-mode and H-mode. The roles of cross-field toroidal momentum transport and of a radial pinch velocity in determining different radial particle fluxes in L-mode and H-mode are elucidated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the first observations in the National Spherical Torus Experiment (NSTX) [S. M. Kaye et al., Phys. Plasmas 8, 1977 (2001)] of 'quiet periods' in the edge turbulence preceding the low-to-high (L-H) mode transition, as diagnosed by the gas puff imaging (GPI) diagnostic near the outer midplane separatrix. During these quiet periods the GPI Dα light emission pattern was transiently similar to that seen during H-mode, i.e., with a relatively small fraction of the GPI light emission located outside the separatrix. These quiet periods had a frequency of ∼3 kHz for at least 30 ms before the L-H transition, and were correlated with changes in the direction of the local poloidal velocity. The GPI turbulence images were also analyzed to obtain an estimate for the dimensionless poloidal shearing S=(dVp/dr)(Lr/Lp)τ. The values of S were strongly modulated by the quiet periods but did not significantly vary during the ∼30 ms preceding the L-H transition. Since neither the quiet periods nor the shear flow increased immediately preceding the L-H transition, neither of these appears to be the trigger for this transition, at least for these cases in NSTX. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electromagnetic effects on the radial transport of electrons in the core of tokamak plasmas are studied by means of linear and nonlinear gyrokinetic simulations with the code GYRO [J. Candy and R. E. Waltz, J. Comput. Phys. 186, 545 (2003)] and by an analytical derivation. The impact of a finite β, that is, a finite ratio of the plasma pressure to the magnetic pressure, is considered on the fluctuations of the magnetic field through Ampére's law, as well as on the geometrical modification of the vertical drift produced by the Shafranov shift in the magnetic equilibrium, which, for realistic descriptions, has to be included in both electrostatic and electromagnetic modeling. The condition of turbulent particle flux at the null, which allows the determination of stationary logarithmic density gradients when neoclassical transport and particle sources are negligible, is investigated for increasing values of β, in regimes of ion temperature gradient and trapped electron mode turbulence. The loss of adiabaticity of passing electrons produced by fluctuations in the magnetic vector potential produces an outward convection. When the magnetic equilibrium geometry is kept fixed, this induces a strong reduction of the stationary logarithmic density gradient with increasing β. This effect is partly compensated by the geometrical effect on the vertical drift. This compensation effect, however, is significantly weaker in nonlinear simulations as compared to quasilinear calculations. A detailed comparison between quasilinear and nonlinear results reveals that the predicted value of the logarithmic density gradient is highly sensitive on the assumptions on the wave number spectrum applied in the quasilinear model. The qualitative consistency of the theoretical predictions with the experimental results obtained so far on the dependence of density peaking on β is discussed by considering the additional impact, with increasing β, of a particle source delivered by neutral beam injection heating. (Some figures in this article are in color only in the electronic version.) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The interaction between small scale turbulence (of the order of the ion Larmor radius) and mesoscale magnetic islands is investigated within the gyrokinetic framework. Turbulence, driven by background temperature and density gradients, over nonlinear mode coupling, pumps energy into long wavelength modes, and can result in an electrostatic vortex mode that coincides with the magnetic island. The strength of the vortex is strongly enhanced by the modified plasma flow response connected with the change in topology, and the transport it generates can compete with the parallel motion along the perturbed magnetic field. Despite the stabilizing effect of sheared plasma flows in and around the island, the net effect of the island is a degradation of the confinement. When density and temperature gradients inside the island are below the threshold for turbulence generation, turbulent fluctuations still persist through turbulence convection and spreading. The latter mechanisms then generate a finite transport flux and, consequently, a finite pressure gradient in the island. A finite radial temperature gradient inside the island is also shown to persist due to the trapped particles, which do not move along the field around the island. In the low collisionality regime, the finite gradient in the trapped population leads to the generation of a bootstrap current, which reduces the neoclassical drive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The internal kink (fishbone) modes, driven by barely passing energetic ions (EIs), are numerically studied with the spatial distribution of the EIs taking into account. It is found that the modes with frequencies comparable to the toroidal precession frequencies are excited by resonant interaction with the EIs. Positive and negative density gradient dominating cases, corresponding to off- and near-axis depositions of neutral beam injection (NBI), respectively, are analyzed in detail. The most interesting and important feature of the modes is that there exists a second stable regime in higher βh (=pressure of EIs/toroidal magnetic pressure) range, and the modes may only be excited by the barely passing EIs in a region of βth1<βh<βth2 (βth is threshold or critical beta of EIs). Besides, the unstable modes require minimum density gradients and minimum radial positions of NBI deposition. The physics mechanism for the existence of the second stable regime is discussed. The results may provide a means of reducing or even preventing the loss of NBI energetic ions and increasing the heating efficiency by adjusting the pitch angle and driving the system into the second stable regime fast enough. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An assembly of soft x-ray pulse height analyzer system, based on silicon drift detector (SDD), has been successfully established on the experimental advanced superconducting tokamak (EAST) to measure the spectrum of soft x-ray emission (E=1–20 keV). The system, including one 15-channel SDD linear array, is installed on EAST horizontal port C. The time-resolved radial profiles of electron temperature and Kα intensities of metallic impurities have been obtained with a spatial resolution of around 7 cm during a single discharge. It was found that the electron temperatures derived from the system are in good agreement with the values from Thomson scattering measurements. The system can also be applied to the measurement of the long pulse discharge for EAST. The diagnostic system is introduced and some typical experimental results obtained from the system are also presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Edge localized modes (ELMs) near the boundary of a high temperature, magnetically confined toroidal plasma represent a new type of nonlinear magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) plasma instability that grows through a coherent plasma interaction with part of a chaotic magnetic field. Under perturbation, the freely moving magnetic boundary surface with an X-point splits into two different limiting asymptotic surfaces (manifolds), similar to the behavior of a hyperbolic saddle point in Hamiltonian dynamics. Numerical simulation using the extended MHD code M3D shows that field-aligned plasma instabilities, such as ballooning modes, can couple to the “unstable” manifold that forms helical, field-following lobes around the original surface. Large type I ELMs proceed in stages. Initially, a rapidly growing ballooning outburst involves the entire outboard side. Large plasma fingers grow well off the midplane, while low density regions penetrate deeply into the plasma. The magnetic field becomes superficially stochastic. A secondary inboard edge instability causes inboard plasma loss. The plasma gradually relaxes back toward axisymmetry, with diminishing cycles of edge instability. Poloidal rotation of the interior and edge plasma may be driven. The magnetic tangle constrains the early nonlinear ballooning, but may encourage the later inward penetration. Equilibrium toroidal rotation and two-fluid diamagnetic drifts have relatively small effects on a strong MHD instability. Intrinsic magnetic stochasticity may help explain the wide range of experimentally observed ELMs and ELM-free behavior in fusion plasmas, as well as properties of the H-mode and plasma edge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The change in the electron temperature inside magnetic island caused by localized radio frequency (rf) heating is studied numerically by solving the two-dimensional energy transport equation, to investigate the dependence of the temperature change on the location and width of the rf power deposition along the minor radius and the helical angle, the island width, and the ratio between the parallel and the perpendicular heat conductivity. Based on obtained numerical results, suggestions for optimizing the island stabilization by localized rf heating are made. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transient electromagnetic field coupling to straight thin wires parallel to each other and located at different heights above a perfectly conducting or dielectric ground plane is analyzed using wire antenna theory and a transmission line method. The time-domain antenna theory formulation is based on a set of the space-time Hallen integral equations. The transmission line approximation is based on the corresponding time-domain Telegrapher's equations. The space-time integral equations arising from the wire antenna theory are handled by the time domain Galerkin-Bubnov scheme of the indirect boundary element method. The time-domain Telegrapher's equations are solved using the finite-difference time-domain method. Time-domain numerical results obtained with both approaches are compared to the results computed via NEC 2 code combined with an inverse Fourier transform procedure. Some illustrative comparisons of results obtained by means of antenna theory and transmission line approach are presented throughout the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We describe a fast reciprocating Langmuir probe and drive system, which has four main new features: (1) use of high-temperature, vacuum, circuit boards instead of cables to reduce weight and increase to 21 the number of possible connections, (2) rotatable and removable shaft, (3) 10 tip construction with designed hardware bandwidth up to 10 MHz, and (4) a detachable and modular tip assembly for easy maintenance. The probe is mounted in a fast pneumatic drive capable of speeds ∼7 m/s and ∼20g’s acceleration in order to reach the scrape-off layer (SOL) and pedestal regions and remain inserted long enough to obtain good statistics while minimizing the heat deposition to the tips and head in a power density environment of 1–10 MW/m2. The National Spherical Torus Experiment SOL features electron temperature, Te∼10–30 eV, and electron density, ne∼0.1–5×1012 cm-3 while the pedestal features ne∼0.5–1.5×1013 cm-3 and Te∼30–150 eV. The probe described here has ten tips which obtain a wide spectrum of plasma parameters: electron temperature profile Te(r), electron density profile ne(r) and Mach number profile M(r), floating potential Vf(r), poloidal and radial electric field profiles Eθ(r) and Eρ(r), saturation current profile Isat(r), and their fluctuations up to 3 MHz. We describe the probe and show representative radial profiles of various parameters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The validity domain of the quasi-static method for computation of high frequency and transient characteristics of horizontal buried wires can be established by comparison with an exact analytical method. Usually, limitations of the quasi-static method are derived for practical characteristics, but these are strongly dependent on the specific case and computed quantities. This paper presents an analysis of the differences in the application of the exact and quasi-static Green's function in a method of moments approach for two important cases: distribution of currents in directly fed wires and induced currents in passive wires. It is concluded that the validity domains of the quasi-static method in these two cases are very different. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The electron temperature difference between the o-point and the x-point of a magnetic island is studied numerically by solving the two-dimensional energy transport equation. It is found that, even without a localized radio-frequency heating at the island's o-point, there is usually a temperature difference between these two points. This difference depends on the radial profile of the heating power deposition, the ratio between the parallel and the perpendicular heat conductivity and the island width, and it takes a minimum when the island width is about twice the local heat diffusion layer width. The effect of the temperature difference on the island growth is further studied, and the peaked heating power density profile at magnetic axis is found be destabilizing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A simplified numerical study is made of the structures that are formed in a magnetized temperature filament due to oscillatory convection from large amplitude drift waves. This study is motivated by a recent experiment [D. C. Pace, M. Shi, J. E. Maggs et al., Phys. Plasmas 15, 122304 (2008)] in which Lorentzian-shaped temporal pulses are observed. These pulses produce a broadband, exponential frequency power spectrum. The model consists of an electron heat transport equation in which plasma convection arising from pressure-gradient driven drift-waves is included. It is found that above a critical wave amplitude, spatially complex structures are formed, which give rise to temporal pulses having positive and negative polarities at different radial positions. The temporal shape of the pulses can be fit by a Lorentzian function. The associated spatial structures exhibit temporally oscillatory heat plumes (positive polarity) and cold channels (negative polarity). The idealized effect of a static flow on these structures is explored. Depending on the flow direction (relative to the azimuthal propagation of the drift waves), the temporal Lorentzian pulses can be suppressed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a generalized form of telegrapher's equations for electromagnetic field coupling to buried wires is derived. The presented approach is based on thin-wire antenna theory. The effect of a dissipative half-space is taken into account via the reflection/transmission coefficient approximation. The conductor losses can be taken into account via the surface impedance per unit length. The derived equations are treated numerically via the Galerkin-Bubnov indirect boundary element method. Numerical results are presented for induced current along the wire, and compared with transmission-line (TL) and modified TL (MTL) approximations, respectively, for the case of perfectly conducting electrode buried in a lossy medium. It is shown that the TL and MTL approximations can result in an inaccurate induced current distribution along the conductor at HFs and for shorter electrode lengths, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Linear and nonlinear gyrokinetic simulations with the GENE code [F. Jenko et al., Phys. Plasmas 7, 1904 (2000)] for tokamak edge plasmas as well as for stellarator core plasmas are presented, shedding light on the behavior of plasma microturbulence under near-separatrix or nonaxisymmetric conditions. To this aim, the required geometric coefficients are inferred directly from the magnetohydrodynamic equilibria of three different devices via the newly developed GIST code. It is found that the residual electron heat transport level in the H-mode edge can be explained in terms of high-wave-number fluctuations driven by electron temperature gradient modes. Moreover, the study of adiabatic ion temperature gradient turbulence in optimized stellarators points to the possibility of a systematic geometric optimization with respect to anomalous transport in nonaxisymmetric devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Extremely hollow profiles of impurities (denoted as “impurity hole”) are observed in the plasma with a steep gradient of the ion temperature after the formation of an internal transport barrier (ITB) in the ion temperature transport in the Large Helical Device [A. Iiyoshi et al., Nucl. Fusion 39, 1245 (1999)]. The radial profile of carbon becomes hollow during the ITB phase and the central carbon density keeps dropping and reaches 0.1%–0.3% of plasma density at the end of the ion ITB phase. The diffusion coefficient and the convective velocity of impurities are evaluated from the time evolution of carbon profiles assuming the diffusion and the convection velocity are constant in time after the formation of the ITB. The transport analysis gives a low diffusion of 0.1–0.2 m2/s and the outward convection velocity of ∼1 m/s at half of the minor radius, which is in contrast to the tendency in tokamak plasmas for the impurity density to increase due to an inward convection and low diffusion in the ITB region. The outward convection is considered to be driven by turbulence because the sign of the convection velocity contradicts the neoclassical theory where a negative electric field and an inward convection are predicted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The pressure at the top of the edge transport barrier (or “pedestal height”) strongly impacts tokamak fusion performance. Predicting the pedestal height in future devices such as ITER [ITER Physics Basis Editors, Nucl. Fusion 39, 2137 (1999)] remains an important challenge. While uncertainties remain, magnetohydrodynamic stability calculations at intermediate wavelength (the “peeling-ballooning” model), accounting for diamagnetic stabilization, have been largely successful in determining the observed maximum pedestal height, when the edge barrier width is taken as an input. Here, we develop a second relation between the pedestal width in normalized poloidal flux (Δ) and pedestal height (Δ=0.076βθ,ped1/2), using an argument based upon kinetic ballooning mode turbulence and observation. Combining this relation with direct calculations of peeling-ballooning stability yields two constraints, which together determine both the height and width of the pedestal. The resulting model, EPED1, allows quantitative prediction of the pedestal height and width in both existing and future experiments. EPED1 is successfully tested both against a dedicated experiment on the DIII-D [J. L. Luxon, Nucl. Fusion 42, 614 (2002)] tokamak, in which predictions were made before the experiment, and against a broader DIII-D data set, including ITER demonstration discharges. EPED1 is found to quantitatively capture the observed complex dependencies of the pedestal height and width. An initial set of pedestal predictions for the ITER device is presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As multi-keV x-ray radiators, hohlraums and halfraums with inner walls coated with metallic materials (called liner) have been tested for the first time with laser as the energy drive. For titanium, conversion efficiencies (CEs) are up to ∼14% for emission into 4π, integrating between 4.6 and 6.5 keV when a large diameter hohlraum is used. Germanium CE is ∼0.8% into 4π between 9 and 13 keV. The highest CEs have been obtained with a 1 ns squared pulse and phase plates giving laser absorption near 99%. These high CEs are due to long-lasting, good plasma conditions for multi-keV x-ray production maintained by plasma confinement inside the plastic cylinder and plasma collision leading to a burst of x rays at a time that depends on target size. As photon emitters at 4.7 keV, titanium-lined hohlraums are the most efficient solid targets and data are close to CEs for gas targets, which are considered as the upper limit for x-ray yields since their low density allows good laser absorption and low kinetics losses. As 10.3 keV x-ray emitters, exploded germanium foils give best results one order of magnitude more efficient than thick targets; doped aerogels and lined hohlraums give similar yields, about three times lower than those from exploded foils. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Experiments in the National Spherical Torus Experiment [M. Ono et al., Nucl. Fusion 40, 557 (2000)] have yielded new, unique observations of nonlinear three-wave interactions between compressional Alfvén eigenmodes (CAEs) and other fast-ion driven instabilities. Specifically, nonlinear interactions of CAEs have been conclusively identified with both energetic particle modes (EPMs) and toroidicity-induced Alfvén eigenmodes (TAEs). These nonlinear interactions occur simultaneously with other three-wave interactions observed between the TAEs and EPMs [N. A. Crocker et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 97, 045002 (2006)]. The interaction between the CAEs and EPMs spatially redistributes the energy of the CAEs, concentrating it into a toroidally localized wave packet in the same way that the interaction between the TAEs and EPMs spatially concentrates the energy of the TAEs. The interaction between the CAEs and TAEs has been shown to further subdivide the CAE wave packet into a train of smaller wave packets. These nonlinear interactions occur during fast-ion loss events. The spatial redistribution of CAE fluctuation energy will modify the effect of the CAEs on fast-ion transport during these events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The generation of zonal magnetic fields in laboratory fusion plasmas is predicted by theoretical and numerical models and was recently observed experimentally. It is shown that the modification of the current density gradient associated with such corrugations can significantly affect the stability of the tearing mode. A simple scaling law is derived that predicts the impact of small stationary current corrugations on the stability parameter Δ′. The described destabilization mechanism can provide an explanation for the trigger of the neoclassical tearing mode in plasmas without significant magnetohydrodynamic activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An analytic model is derived for electromagnetic radio-frequency (rf) wave propagation in a waveguide filled by a tenuous plasma with a slightly tilted equilibrium magnetic field B, i.e., by=By/B<1. The calculation includes the self-consistent coupling between the rf fields and the sheaths at the sheath-plasma interface and can be used to describe antenna sheath formation in the ion cyclotron range of frequencies. The sheaths are treated as thin vacuum regions separating the plasma and metal wall. It is shown that (i) the launched fast wave is coupled parasitically to the slow wave by the magnetic field structure when by≠0 and by the sheath boundary condition, (ii) the sheath voltage Vsh is dependent on the wave parity (the “antenna phasing”), and (iii) integrating the vacuum rf fields, Vvac=-∫dzE∥(vac), gives an overestimate of the sheath voltage. An expression for the self-consistent Vsh including plasma effects and satisfying the Child–Langmuir law is obtained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Results of linear gyrokinetic simulations of ASDEX Upgrade [O. Gruber et al., Nucl. Fusion 39, 1321 (1999)] edge plasmas, with experimentally determined geometry and input parameters, are presented. It is found that in the near-edge region, microtearing modes can exist under conditions found in conventional tokamaks. As one enters the steep-gradient region, the growth rate spectrum is dominated—down to very low wavenumbers—by electron temperature gradient modes. The latter tend to peak near the X-point(s) and possess properties which may explain the ratios of the density and temperature gradient scale lengths that have been observed in various experiments over the last decade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The nonthermal bremsstrahlung is calculated in a plasma with arbitrary axisymmetric magnetic configuration, taking into account the relativistic angular anisotropy of the radiation cross section at high photon energies, the helical winding of the field lines on the magnetic flux surfaces, and the poloidal variation of the electron distribution function including particle trapping effects. The fast electron dynamics during current drive in tokamaks and reverse field pinches can be investigated in detail by coupling this calculation to a bounce-averaged relativistic Fokker–Planck solver, which calculates the electron distribution function. The asymmetry between high- and low-field side hard x-ray emission intensity that has been measured on the Tore-Supra tokamak [Equipe TORE SUPRA, in Proceedings of the 15th Conference on Plasma Physics and Controlled Nuclear Fusion Research, Seville (International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna, 1995) Vol. 1, IAEA-CN-60/A1-5 (Institute of Physics, Bristol, U.K., 1995), p. 105] is explained for the first time by the role of trapped electrons. A much stronger poloidal asymmetry is predicted for the line-integrated fast electron bremsstrahlung in the poloidal plane of the Madison Symmetric Torus [R. N. Dexter et al., Fusion Tech. 19, 131 (1991)], since the helical winding of the magnetic field lines is much larger for a reverse field pinch configuration. In this case, the hard x-ray emission is no longer a flux surface quantity, which prevents local reconstructions using a standard Abel inversion, whatever the geometrical arrangement of the lines of sight. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We developed a cryogenic transimpedance amplifier that works at a broad range of temperatures, from room temperature down to 4 K. The device was realized with a standard complementary metal oxide semiconductor 1.5 μm process. Measurements of current-voltage characteristics, open-loop gain, input referred noise current, and power consumption are presented as a function of temperature. The transimpedance amplifier has been successfully applied to sense the motion of a polysilicon micromechanical oscillator at low temperatures. The whole device is intended to serve as a magnetometer for microscopic superconducting samples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Heat diffusion in magnetized plasmas is investigated numerically for tokamak geometry and realistic plasma parameters. Heat transport across single and overlapping magnetic islands is studied. As an application, the influence of an (n+1,m+1) helical perturbation onto the temperature perturbation caused by an (n,m) neoclassical tearing mode is examined. It is shown that the resulting ergodization of the magnetic field structure is able to reduce the resonant bootstrap current perturbation of a neoclassical tearing mode. This might explain the drop in the mode amplitude observed in the frequently interrupted regime. Furthermore, the influence of edge ergodization as generated by external perturbation coils onto the electron temperature is studied. It is shown that ergodization of the plasma boundary can decrease the pedestal temperature gradient significantly. This effect might be one element in the mitigation effects of edge-localized modes achieved by external resonant perturbation fields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explains the existence of the m/n=1/1 kink mode during the vertical disruption event when the plasma has an electrical contact with the plasma facing conducting surfaces. It is shown that the kink perturbation can be in an equilibrium state even with a stable safety factor q>1, if the surface currents, excited by the kink mode, can flow through the conducting structure. The present theory suggests an explanation of the so-called sideway forces on the tokamak in-vessel components during the disruption event. For the general case of such wall touching kink modes, the energy principle is derived, which includes the current sharing effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The radial redistribution of energetic ions by background turbulence is investigated by means of linear and nonlinear gyrokinetic simulations with the GENE code [T. Dannert and F. Jenko, Phys. Plasmas 12, 072309 (2005)]. The fast particles are described by an asymmetric and anisotropic Maxwellian distribution function, and they are treated as passive tracers. It is found that there can be a significant fast ion diffusivity for particle energies up to about 10 times the thermal energy, with details depending on the properties of the magnetic geometry and of the microinstabilities driving the turbulence. This finding provides a possible explanation of experimental results concerning the efficiency of neutral beam current drive reported recently from ASDEX Upgrade [S. Günter et al., Nucl. Fusion 47, 920 (2007)]. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new technique to measure the first and second derivatives of the ion temperature profile has been developed by using a charge exchange spectroscopy system with space modulation optics. The space observed is scanned up to ±3 cm with a cosine wave modulation frequency up to 30 Hz by shifting the object lens in front of the optical fiber bundle by 0.5 mm with a piezoelement. The first and second derivatives of ion temperature are derived from the modulation component of the ion temperature measured by using Fourier series expansion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An overview of the developments postcirca 1980s in the instrumentation and application of charge exchange neutral particle diagnostics on magnetic fusion energy experiments is presented. First, spectrometers that employ only electric fields and hence provide ion energy resolution but not mass resolution are discussed. Next, spectrometers that use various geometrical combinations of both electric and magnetic fields to provide both energy and mass resolutions are reviewed. Finally, neutral particle diagnostics based on utilization of time-of-flight techniques are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Canadian Journal of Physics is the property of Canadian Science Publishing and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Canadian Journal of Physics is the property of Canadian Science Publishing and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Nonlinear simulations of resistive wall modes (RWMs) with a Doppler shift dominant equilibrium poloidal rotation have been carried out by using reduced magnetohydrodynamic equations in a low beta cylindrical tokamak, where the core plasma is surrounded by a cold plasma with a high resistivity. When the equilibrium poloidal rotation frequency is small and the Doppler shift is predominant, the wall mode becomes unstable, which is one of the RWMs nearly locked to the resistive wall. Since the slowing down torque increases with equilibrium poloidal rotation frequency and the poloidal rotation decreases to almost zero near the plasma surface before the saturation, the nonlinear saturation level does not depend on either the equilibrium poloidal rotation frequency or the density of the cold plasma. When the equilibrium poloidal rotation frequency becomes larger than a critical value, the plasma mode rotating to the resistive wall becomes unstable. When the cold plasma has the same density as that in the core plasma, neither the centrifugal force nor the Coriolis force has any effect. In such a case, as the equilibrium poloidal rotation frequency increases, the magnetic flux is so hard to diffuse into the resistive wall that the slowing down torque decreases and the rotation tends to survive in the nonlinear phase, which makes the saturation level decrease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role of stochastization of magnetic field lines in fast reconnection phenomena occurring in magnetized fusion plasma is analyzed. A mapping technique is applied to trace the field lines of toroidally confined plasma where the perturbation parameter is expressed in terms of experimental perturbation amplitudes determined from the Axially Symmetric Divertor Experiment (ASDEX) Upgrade tokamak [S. Günter, C. Angioni, M. Apostoliceanu et al., Nucl. Fusion 45, S98 (2005)]. It is found that fast reconnection observed during amplitude drops of the neoclassical tearing mode instability in the frequently interrupted regime can be related to stochastization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Configurations with nearby multiple resonant surfaces have broad spectra of linearly unstable coupled tearing modes with dominant high poloidal mode numbers m. This was recently shown for the case of multiple q=1 resonances [Bierwage et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 94 65001 (2005)]. In the present work, similar behavior is found for double tearing modes (DTM) on resonant surfaces with q>=1. A detailed analysis of linear instability characteristics of DTMs with various mode numbers m is performed using numerical simulations. The mode structures and dispersion relations for linearly unstable modes are calculated. Comparisons between low- and higher-m modes are carried out, and the roles of the inter-resonance distance and of the magnetic Reynolds number SHp are investigated. High-m modes are found to be destabilized when the distance between the resonant surfaces is small. They dominate over low-m modes in a wide range of SHp, including regimes relevant for tokamak operation. These results may be readily applied to configurations with more than two resonant surfaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]