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A quasi-linear reduced transport model is developed from a database of high-$\beta$ electromagnetic nonlinear gyrokinetic simulations performed with Spherical Tokamak for Energy Production (STEP) relevant parameters. The quasi-linear model is fully electromagnetic and accounts for the effect of equilibrium flow shear using a novel approach. Its flux predictions are shown to agree quantitatively with predictions from local nonlinear gyrokinetic simulations across a broad range of STEP-relevant local equilibria. This reduced transport model is implemented in the T3D transport solver that is used to perform the first flux-driven simulations for STEP to account for transport from hybrid-KBM turbulence, which dominates over a wide region of the core plasma. Nonlinear gyrokinetic simulations of the final transport steady state from T3D return turbulent fluxes that are consistent with the reduced model, indicating that the quasi-linear model may also be appropriate for describing the transport steady state. Within the assumption considered here, our simulations support the existence of a transport steady state in STEP with a fusion power comparable to that in the burning flat-top of the conceptual design, but do not demonstrate how this state can be accessed.

A theoretical model is presented that for the first time matches experimental measurements of the pedestal width-height Diallo scaling in the low-aspect-ratio high-$\beta$ tokamak NSTX. Combining linear gyrokinetics with self-consistent pedestal equilibrium variation, kinetic-ballooning, rather than ideal-ballooning plasma instability, is shown to limit achievable confinement in spherical tokamak pedestals. Simulations are used to find the novel Gyrokinetic Critical Pedestal constraint, which determines the steepest pressure profile a pedestal can sustain subject to gyrokinetic instability. Gyrokinetic width-height scaling expressions for NSTX pedestals with varying density and temperature profiles are obtained. These scalings for spherical tokamaks depart significantly from that of conventional aspect ratio tokamaks., Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures. Nuclear Fusion 2024

Turbulent transport is regarded as one of the key issues in magnetic confinement nuclear fusion, both for tokamaks in stellarators. In this work, we show that a significant decrease in a microstability-based proxy, as opposed to a geometric one, for the turbulent heat flux, namely the quasilinear heat flux, can be obtained in an efficient manner by coupling stellarator optimization with linear gyrokinetic simulations. This is accomplished by computing the quasi-linear heat flux at each step of the optimization process, as well as the deviation from quasisymmetry, and minimizing their sum, leading to a balance between neoclassical and turbulent transport proxy., Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures, accepted in Physical Review E

GX is a code for solving the nonlinear gyrokinetic system for low-frequency turbulence in magnetized plasmas, particularly tokamaks and stellarators. In GX, our primary motivation and target is a fast gyrokinetic solver that can be used for fusion reactor design and optimization along with wide-ranging physics exploration. This has led to several code and algorithm design decisions, specifically chosen to prioritize time to solution. First, we have used a discretization algorithm that is pseudo-spectral in the entire phase-space, including a Laguerre-Hermite pseudo-spectral formulation of velocity space, which allows for smooth interpolation between coarse gyrofluid-like resolutions and finer conventional gyrokinetic resolutions and efficient evaluation of a model collision operator. Additionally, we have built GX to natively target graphics processors (GPUs), which are among the fastest computational platforms available today. Finally, we have taken advantage of the reactor-relevant limit of small $\rho_*$ by using the radially-local flux-tube approach. In this paper we present details about the gyrokinetic system and the numerical algorithms used in GX to solve the system. We then present several numerical benchmarks against established gyrokinetic codes in both tokamak and stellarator magnetic geometries to verify that GX correctly simulates gyrokinetic turbulence in the small $\rho_*$ limit. Moreover, we show that the convergence properties of the Laguerre-Hermite spectral velocity formulation are quite favorable for nonlinear problems of interest. Coupled with GPU acceleration, which we also investigate with scaling studies, this enables GX to be able to produce useful turbulence simulations in minutes on one (or a few) GPUs. GX is open-source software that is ready for fusion reactor design studies., Comment: 39 pages, 12 figures

In magnetic confinement fusion devices, the ratio of the plasma pressure to the magnetic field energy, $\beta$, can become sufficiently large that electromagnetic microinstabilities become unstable, driving turbulence that distorts or reconnects the equilibrium magnetic field. In this paper, a theory is proposed for electromagnetic, electron-driven linear instabilities that have current layers localised to mode-rational surfaces and binormal wavelengths comparable to the ion gyroradius. The model retains axisymmetric toroidal geometry with arbitrary shaping, and consists of orbit-averaged equations for the mode-rational surface layer, with a ballooning space kinetic matching condition for passing electrons. The matching condition connects the current layer to the large scale electromagnetic fluctuations, and is derived in the limit that $\beta$ is comparable to the square root of the electron-to-ion-mass ratio. Electromagnetic fluctuations only enter through the matching condition, allowing for the identification of an effective $\beta$ that includes the effects of equilibrium flux surface shaping. The scaling predictions made by the asymptotic theory are tested with comparisons to results from linear simulations of micro-tearing and electrostatic microinstabilities in MAST discharge #6252, showing excellent agreement. In particular, it is demonstrated that the effective $\beta$ can explain the dependence of the local micro-tearing mode (MTM) growth rate on the ballooning parameter $\theta_0$ -- possibly providing a route to optimise local flux surfaces for reduced MTM-driven transport., Comment: 29 pages, 14 figures

Nonlinear multiscale gyrokinetic simulations of a Joint European Torus edge pedestal are used to show that electron-temperature-gradient (ETG) turbulence has a rich three-dimensional structure, varying strongly according to the local magnetic-field configuration. In the plane normal to the magnetic field, the steep pedestal electron temperature gradient gives rise to anisotropic turbulence with a radial (normal) wavelength much shorter than in the binormal direction. In the parallel direction, the location and parallel extent of the turbulence are determined by the variation in the magnetic drifts and finite-Larmor-radius (FLR) effects. The magnetic drift and FLR topographies have a perpendicular-wavelength dependence, which permits turbulence intensity maxima near the flux-surface top and bottom at longer binormal scales, but constrains turbulence to the outboard midplane at shorter electron-gyroradius binormal scales. Our simulations show that long-wavelength ETG turbulence does not transport heat efficiently, and significantly decreases overall ETG transport -- in our case by $\sim$40 \% -- through multiscale interactions., Comment: 17 pages, 14 figures

The theory of magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence predicts that Alfv\'enic and slow-mode-like compressive fluctuations are energetically decoupled at small scales in the inertial range. The partition of energy between these fluctuations determines the nature of dissipation, which, in many astrophysical systems, happens on scales where plasma is collisionless. However, when the magnetorotational instability (MRI) drives the turbulence, it is difficult to resolve numerically the scale at which both types of fluctuations start to be decoupled because the MRI energy injection occurs in a broad range of wavenumbers, and both types of fluctuations are usually expected to be coupled even at relatively small scales. In this study, we focus on collisional MRI turbulence threaded by a near-azimuthal mean magnetic field, which is naturally produced by the differential rotation of a disc. We show that, in such a case, the decoupling scales are reachable using a reduced MHD model that includes differential-rotation effects. In our reduced MHD model, the Alfv\'enic and compressive fluctuations are coupled only through the linear terms that are proportional to the angular velocity of the accretion disc. We numerically solve for the turbulence in this model and show that the Alfv\'enic and compressive fluctuations are decoupled at the small scales of our simulations as the nonlinear energy transfer dominates the linear coupling below the MRI-injection scale. In the decoupling scales, the energy flux of compressive fluctuations contained in the small scales is almost double that of Alfv\'enic fluctuations. Finally, we discuss the application of this result to prescriptions of ion-to-electron heating ratio in hot accretion flows., Comment: Accepted for publication in Journal of Plasma Physics

The partition of irreversible heating between ions and electrons in compressively driven (but subsonic) collisionless turbulence is investigated by means of nonlinear hybrid gyrokinetic simulations. We derive a prescription for the ion-to-electron heating ratio $Q_\rmi/Q_\rme$ as a function of the compressive-to-Alfv\'enic driving power ratio $P_\compr/P_\AW$, of the ratio of ion thermal pressure to magnetic pressure $\beta_\rmi$, and of the ratio of ion-to-electron background temperatures $T_\rmi/T_\rme$. It is shown that $Q_\rmi/Q_\rme$ is an increasing function of $P_\compr/P_\AW$. When the compressive driving is sufficiently large, $Q_\rmi/Q_\rme$ approaches $\simeq P_\compr/P_\AW$. This indicates that, in turbulence with large compressive fluctuations, the partition of heating is decided at the injection scales, rather than at kinetic scales. Analysis of phase-space spectra shows that the energy transfer from inertial-range compressive fluctuations to sub-Larmor-scale kinetic Alfv\'en waves is absent for both low and high $\beta_\rmi$, meaning that the compressive driving is directly connected to the ion entropy fluctuations, which are converted into ion thermal energy. This result suggests that preferential electron heating is a very special case requiring low $\beta_\rmi$ and no, or weak, compressive driving. Our heating prescription has wide-ranging applications, including to the solar wind and to hot accretion disks such as M87 and Sgr A*., Comment: Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. X

The saturated state of turbulence driven by the ion-temperature-gradient instability is investigated using a two-dimensional long-wavelength fluid model that describes the perturbed electrostatic potential and perturbed ion temperature in a magnetic field with constant curvature (a $Z$-pinch) and an equilibrium temperature gradient. Numerical simulations reveal a well-defined transition between a finite-amplitude saturated state dominated by strong zonal-flow and zonal-temperature perturbations, and a blow-up state that fails to saturate on a box-independent scale. We argue that this transition is equivalent to the Dimits transition from a low-transport to a high-transport state seen in gyrokinetic numerical simulations. A quasi-static staircase-like structure of the temperature gradient intertwined with zonal flows, which have patch-wise constant shear, emerges near the Dimits threshold. The turbulent heat flux in the low-collisionality near-marginal state is dominated by turbulent bursts, triggered by coherent long-lived structures closely resembling those found in gyrokinetic simulations with imposed equilibrium flow shear. The break up of the low-transport Dimits regime is linked to a competition between the two different sources of poloidal momentum in the system -- the Reynolds stress and the advection of the diamagnetic flow by the $\boldsymbol{E}\times\boldsymbol{B}$ flow. By analysing the linear ITG modes, we obtain a semi-analytic model for the Dimits threshold at large collisionality., Comment: 63 pages, 30 figures, to be submitted to J. Plasma Phys

We present a new method for formulating closures that learn from kinetic simulation data. We apply this method to phase mixing in a simple gyrokinetic turbulent system - temperature gradient driven turbulence in an unsheared slab. The closure, called the learned multi-mode (LMM) closure, is constructed by, first, extracting an optimal basis from a nonlinear kinetic simulation using singular value decomposition (SVD). Subsequent nonlinear fluid simulations are projected onto this basis and the results are used to formulate the closure. We compare the closure with other closures schemes over a broad range of the relevant 2D parameter space (collisionality and gradient drive). We find that the turbulent kinetic system produces phase mixing rates much lower than the linear expectations, which the LMM closure is capable of capturing. We also compare radial heat fluxes. A Hammett-Perkins closure, generalized to include collisional effects, is quite successful throughout the parameter space, producing ~14% Root-Mean-Square (RMS) error. The LMM closure is also very effective: when trained at three (two) points (in a 35 point parameter grid), the LMM closure produces 9% (12%) RMS errors. The LMM procedure can be readily generalized to other closure problems., Comment: 24 pages, 9 figures, 2 tables

We present a method for stellarator coil design via gradient-based optimization of the coil-winding surface. The REGCOIL (Landreman 2017 Nucl. Fusion 57 046003) approach is used to obtain the coil shapes on the winding surface using a continuous current potential. We apply the adjoint method to calculate derivatives of the objective function, allowing for efficient computation of analytic gradients while eliminating the numerical noise of approximate derivatives. We are able to improve engineering properties of the coils by targeting the root-mean-squared current density in the objective function. We obtain winding surfaces for W7-X and HSX which simultaneously decrease the normal magnetic field on the plasma surface and increase the surface-averaged distance between the coils and the plasma in comparison with the actual winding surfaces. The coils computed on the optimized surfaces feature a smaller toroidal extent and curvature and increased inter-coil spacing. A technique for visualization of the sensitivity of figures of merit to normal surface displacement of the winding surface is presented, with potential applications for understanding engineering tolerances., Comment: Submitted to Nuclear Fusion

Observational evidence in space and astrophysical plasmas with long collisional mean free path suggests that more massive charged particles may be preferentially heated. One possible mechanism for this is the turbulent cascade of energy from injection to dissipation scales, where the energy is converted to heat. Here we consider a simple system consisting of a magnetized plasma slab of electrons and a single ion species with a cross-field density gradient. We show that such a system is subject to an electron drift wave instability, known as the universal instability, which is stabilized only when the electron and ion thermal speeds are equal. For unequal thermal speeds, we find that the instability gives rise to turbulent energy exchange between ions and electrons that acts to equalize the thermal speeds. Consequently, this turbulent heating tends to equalize the component temperatures of pair plasmas and to heat ions to much higher temperatures than electrons for conventional mass-ratio plasmas., Comment: 11 pages, 3 figures, submitted to the Journal of Plasma Physics

First-principles simulations of tokamak turbulence have proven to be of great value in recent decades. We develop a pseudo-spectral velocity formulation of the turbulence equations that smoothly interpolates between the highly efficient but lower resolution 3D gyrofluid representation and the conventional but more expensive 5D gyrokinetic representation. Our formulation is a projection of the nonlinear gyrokinetic equation onto a Laguerre-Hermite velocity-space basis. We discuss issues related to collisions, closures, and entropy. While any collision operator can be used in the formulation, we highlight a model operator that has a particularly sparse Laguerre-Hermite representation, while satisfying conservation laws and the H theorem. Free streaming, magnetic drifts, and nonlinear phase mixing each give rise to closure problems, which we discuss in relation to the instabilities of interest and to free energy conservation. We show that the model is capable of reproducing gyrokinetic results for linear instabilities and zonal flow dynamics. Thus the final model is appropriate for the study of instabilities, turbulence, and transport in a wide range of geometries, including tokamaks and stellarators.

We present a new algorithm for the discretization of the Vlasov-Maxwell system of equations for the study of plasmas in the kinetic regime. Using the discontinuous Galerkin finite element method for the spatial discretization, we obtain a high order accurate solution for the plasma's distribution function. Time stepping for the distribution function is done explicitly with a third order strong-stability preserving Runge-Kutta method. Since the Vlasov equation in the Vlasov-Maxwell system is a high dimensional transport equation, up to six dimensions plus time, we take special care to note various features we have implemented to reduce the cost while maintaining the integrity of the solution, including the use of a reduced high-order basis set. A series of benchmarks, from simple wave and shock calculations, to a five dimensional turbulence simulation, are presented to verify the efficacy of our set of numerical methods, as well as demonstrate the power of the implemented features.

We investigate the effect of varying the ion temperature gradient (ITG) and toroidal equilibrium scale sheared flow on ion-scale turbulence in the outer core of MAST by means of local gyrokinetic simulations. We show that nonlinear simulations reproduce the experimental ion heat flux and that the experimentally measured values of the ITG and the flow shear lie close to the turbulence threshold. We demonstrate that the system is subcritical in the presence of flow shear, i.e., the system is formally stable to small perturbations, but transitions to a turbulent state given a large enough initial perturbation. We propose that the transition to subcritical turbulence occurs via an intermediate state dominated by low number of coherent long-lived structures, close to threshold, which increase in number as the system is taken away from the threshold into the more strongly turbulent regime, until they fill the domain and a more conventional turbulence emerges. We show that the properties of turbulence are effectively functions of the distance to threshold, as quantified by the ion heat flux. We make quantitative comparisons of correlation lengths, times, and amplitudes between our simulations and experimental measurements using the MAST BES diagnostic. We find reasonable agreement of the correlation properties, most notably of the correlation time, for which significant discrepancies were found in previous numerical studies of MAST turbulence., Comment: 67 pages, 37 figures. Submitted to PPCF

Neoclassical transport in the presence of non-axisymmetric magnetic fields causes a toroidal torque known as neoclassical toroidal viscosity (NTV). The toroidal symmetry of ITER will be broken by the finite number of toroidal field coils and by test blanket modules (TBMs). The addition of ferritic inserts (FIs) will decrease the magnitude of the toroidal field ripple. 3D magnetic equilibria with toroidal field ripple and ferromagnetic structures are calculated for an ITER steady-state scenario using the Variational Moments Equilibrium Code (VMEC). Neoclassical transport quantities in the presence of these error fields are calculated using the Stellarator Fokker-Planck Iterative Neoclassical Conservative Solver (SFINCS). These calculations fully account for $E_r$, flux surface shaping, multiple species, magnitude of ripple, and collisionality rather than applying approximate analytic NTV formulae. As NTV is a complicated nonlinear function of $E_r$, we study its behavior over a plausible range of $E_r$. We estimate the toroidal flow, and hence $E_r$, using a semi-analytic turbulent intrinsic rotation model and NUBEAM calculations of neutral beam torque. The NTV from the $\rvert n \rvert = 18$ ripple dominates that from lower $n$ perturbations of the TBMs. With the inclusion of FIs, the magnitude of NTV torque is reduced by about 75% near the edge. We present comparisons of several models of tangential magnetic drifts, finding appreciable differences only for superbanana-plateau transport at small $E_r$. We find the scaling of calculated NTV torque with ripple magnitude to indicate that ripple-trapping may be a significant mechanism for NTV in ITER. The computed NTV torque without ferritic components is comparable in magnitude to the NBI and intrinsic turbulent torques and will likely damp rotation, but the NTV torque is significantly reduced by the planned ferritic inserts.

New results from MAST are presented that focus on validating models in order to extrapolate to future devices. Measurements during start-up experiments have shown how the bulk ion temperature rise scales with the square of the reconnecting field. During the current ramp up models are not able to correctly predict the current diffusion. Experiments have been performed looking at edge and core turbulence. At the edge detailed studies have revealed how filament characteristic are responsible for determining the near and far SOL density profiles. In the core the intrinsic rotation and electron scale turbulence have been measured. The role that the fast ion gradient has on redistributing fast ions through fishbone modes has led to a redesign of the neutral beam injector on MAST Upgrade. In H-mode the turbulence at the pedestal top has been shown to be consistent with being due to electron temperature gradient modes. A reconnection process appears to occur during ELMs and the number of filaments released determines the power profile at the divertor. Resonant magnetic perturbations can mitigate ELMs provided the edge peeling response is maximised and the core kink response minimised. The mitigation of intrinsic error fields with toroidal mode number n>1 has been shown to be important for plasma performance., Comment: 34 pages, 10 figures. This is an author-created, un-copyedited version of an article submitted for publication in Nuclear Fusion. IoP Publishing Ltd is not responsible for any errors or omissions in this version of the manuscript or any version derived from it

The confinement of heat in the core of a magnetic fusion reactor is optimised using a multidimensional optimisation algorithm. For the first time in such a study, the loss of heat due to turbulence is modelled at every stage using first-principles nonlinear simulations which accurately capture the turbulent cascade and large-scale zonal flows. The simulations utilise a novel approach, with gyrofluid treatment of the small-scale drift waves and gyrokinetic treatment of the large-scale zonal flows. A simple near-circular equilibrium with standard parameters is chosen as the initial condition. The figure of merit, fusion power per unit volume, is calculated, and then two control parameters, the elongation and triangularity of the outer flux surface, are varied, with the algorithm seeking to optimise the chosen figure of merit. A two-fold increase in the plasma power per unit volume is achieved by moving to higher elongation and strongly negative triangularity., Comment: 32 pages, 8 figures, accepted to JPP

Tokamak turbulence, driven by the ion-temperature gradient and occurring in the presence of flow shear, is investigated by means of local, ion-scale, electrostatic gyrokinetic simulations (with both kinetic ions and electrons) of the conditions in the outer core of the Mega-Ampere Spherical Tokamak (MAST). A parameter scan in the local values of the ion-temperature gradient and flow shear is performed. It is demonstrated that the experimentally observed state is near the stability threshold and that this stability threshold is nonlinear: sheared turbulence is subcritical, i.e. the system is formally stable to small perturbations, but, given a large enough initial perturbation, it transitions to a turbulent state. A scenario for such a transition is proposed and supported by numerical results: close to threshold, the nonlinear saturated state and the associated anomalous heat transport are dominated by long-lived coherent structures, which drift across the domain, have finite amplitudes, but are not volume filling; as the system is taken away from the threshold into the more unstable regime, the number of these structures increases until they overlap and a more conventional chaotic state emerges. Whereas this appears to represent a new scenario for transition to turbulence in tokamak plasmas, it is reminiscent of the behaviour of other subcritically turbulent systems, e.g. pipe flows and Keplerian magnetorotational accretion flows., Comment: 16 pages, 5 figures, accepted to Journal of Plasma Physics

In electrostatic simulations of MAST plasma at electron-gyroradius scales, using the local flux-tube gyrokinetic code GS2 with adiabatic ions, we find that the long-time saturated electron heat flux (the level most relevant to energy transport) decreases as the electron collisionality decreases. At early simulation times, the heat flux "quasi-saturates" without any strong dependence on collisionality, and with the turbulence dominated by streamer-like radially elongated structures. However, the zonal fluctuation component continues to grow slowly until much later times, eventually leading to a new saturated state dominated by zonal modes and with the heat flux proportional to the collision rate, in approximate agreement with the experimentally observed collisionality scaling of the energy confinement in MAST. We outline an explanation of this effect based on a model of ETG turbulence dominated by zonal-nonzonal interactions and on an analytically derived scaling of the zonal-mode damping rate with the electron-ion collisionality. Improved energy confinement with decreasing collisionality is favourable towards the performance of future, hotter devices., Comment: 39 pages

A scaling theory of long-wavelength electrostatic turbulence in a magnetised, weakly collisional plasma (e.g., ITG turbulence) is proposed, with account taken both of the nonlinear advection of the perturbed particle distribution by fluctuating ExB flows and of its phase mixing, which is caused by the streaming of the particles along the mean magnetic field and, in a linear problem, would lead to Landau damping. It is found that it is possible to construct a consistent theory in which very little free energy leaks into high velocity moments of the distribution function, rendering the turbulent cascade in the energetically relevant part of the wave-number space essentially fluid-like. The velocity-space spectra of free energy expressed in terms of Hermite-moment orders are steep power laws and so the free-energy content of the phase space does not diverge at infinitesimal collisionality (while it does for a linear problem); collisional heating due to long-wavelength perturbations vanishes in this limit (also in contrast with the linear problem, in which it occurs at the finite rate equal to the Landau-damping rate). The ability of the free energy to stay in the low velocity moments of the distribution function is facilitated by the "anti-phase-mixing" effect, whose presence in the nonlinear system is due to the stochastic version of the plasma echo (the advecting velocity couples the phase-mixing and anti-phase-mixing perturbations). The partitioning of the wave-number space between the (energetically dominant) region where this is the case and the region where linear phase mixing wins its competition with nonlinear advection is governed by the "critical balance" between linear and nonlinear timescales (which for high Hermite moments splits into two thresholds, one demarcating the wave-number region where phase mixing predominates, the other where plasma echo does)., Comment: 45 pages (single-column), 3 figures, replaced with version published in JPP

We report on the algorithms and numerical methods used in Viriato, a novel fluid-kinetic code that solves two distinct sets of equations: (i) the Kinetic Reduced Electron Heating Model (KREHM) equations [Zocco & Schekochihin, Phys. Plasmas 18, 102309 (2011)] (which reduce to the standard Reduced-MHD equations in the appropriate limit) and (ii) the kinetic reduced MHD (KRMHD) equations [Schekochihin et al., Astrophys. J. Suppl. 182:310 (2009)]. Two main applications of these equations are magnetised (Alfvenic) plasma turbulence and magnetic reconnection. Viriato uses operator splitting (Strang or Godunov) to separate the dynamics parallel and perpendicular to the ambient magnetic field (assumed strong). Along the magnetic field, Viriato allows for either a second-order accurate MacCormack method or, for higher accuracy, a spectral-like scheme composed of the combination of a total variation diminishing (TVD) third order Runge-Kutta method for the time derivative with a 7th order upwind scheme for the fluxes. Perpendicular to the field Viriato is pseudo-spectral, and the time integration is performed by means of an iterative predictor-corrector scheme. In addition, a distinctive feature of Viriato is its spectral representation of the parallel velocity-space dependence, achieved by means of a Hermite representation of the perturbed distribution function. A series of linear and nonlinear benchmarks and tests are presented, including a detailed analysis of 2D and 3D Orszag-Tang-type decaying turbulence, both in fluid and kinetic regimes., Comment: 42 pages, 15 figures, submitted to J. Comp. Phys

A linearised kinetic equation describing electrostatic perturbations of a Maxwellian equilibrium in a weakly collisional plasma forced by a random source is considered. The problem is treated as a kinetic analogue of the Langevin equation and the corresponding fluctuation-dissipation theorem is derived. This kinetic fluctuation-dissipation theorem reduces to the standard "fluid" one in the regime where the Landau damping rate is small and the system has no real frequency; in this case the simplest possible Landau-fluid closure of the kinetic equation coincides with the standard Langevin equation. Phase mixing of density fluctuations and emergence of fine scales in velocity space is diagnosed as a constant flux of free energy in Hermite space; the fluctuation-dissipation theorem for the perturbations of the distribution function is derived, in the form of a universal expression for the Hermite spectrum of the free energy. Finite-collisionality effects are included. This work is aimed at establishing the simplest fluctuation-dissipation relations for a kinetic plasma, clarifying the connection between Landau and Hermite-space formalisms, and setting a benchmark case for a study of phase mixing in turbulent plasmas., Comment: 20 pages, 4 figures

Results of the first validation of large guide field, $B_g / \delta B_0 \gg 1$, gyrokinetic simulations of magnetic reconnection at a fusion and solar corona relevant $\beta_i = 0.01$ and solar wind relevant $\beta_i = 1$ are presented, where $\delta B_0$ is the reconnecting field. Particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations scan a wide range of guide magnetic field strength to test for convergence to the gyrokinetic limit. The gyrokinetic simulations display a high degree of morphological symmetry, to which the PIC simulations converge when $\beta_i B_g / \delta B_0 \gtrsim 1$ and $B_g / \delta B_0 \gg 1$. In the regime of convergence, the reconnection rate, relative energy conversion, and overall magnitudes are found to match well between the PIC and gyrokinetic simulations, implying that gyrokinetics is capable of making accurate predictions well outside its regime of formal applicability. These results imply that in the large guide field limit many quantities resulting from the nonlinear evolution of reconnection scale linearly with the guide field., Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, accepted as PoP letter

A unique method of driving Alfvenic turbulence via an oscillating Langevin antenna is presented. This method of driving is motivated by a desire to inject energy into a finite domain numerical simulation in a manner that models the nonlinear transfer of energy from fluctuations in the turbulent cascade at scales larger than the simulation domain.. The oscillating Langevin antenna is shown to capture the essential features of the larger scale turbulence and efficiently couple to the plasma, generating steady-state turbulence within one characteristic turnaround time. The antenna is also sufficiently flexible to explore both strong and weak regimes of Alfvenic plasma turbulence., Comment: 33 pages, 10 figures, accepted for publication in Computer Physics Communications

This paper presents a complete theoretical framework for plasma turbulence and transport in tokamak plasmas. The fundamental scale separations present in plasma turbulence are codified as an asymptotic expansion in the ratio of the gyroradius to the equilibrium scale length. Proceeding order-by-order in this expansion, a framework for plasma turbulence is developed. It comprises an instantaneous equilibrium, the fluctuations driven by gradients in the equilibrium quantities, and the transport-timescale evolution of mean profiles of these quantities driven by the fluctuations. The equilibrium distribution functions are local Maxwellians with each flux surface rotating toroidally as a rigid body. The magnetic equillibrium is obtained from the Grad-Shafranov equation for a rotating plasma and the slow (resistive) evolution of the magnetic field is given by an evolution equation for the safety factor q. Large-scale deviations of the distribution function from a Maxwellian are given by neoclassical theory. The fluctuations are determined by the high-flow gyrokinetic equation, from which we derive the governing principle for gyrokinetic turbulence in tokamaks: the conservation and local cascade of free energy. Transport equations for the evolution of the mean density, temperature and flow velocity profiles are derived. These transport equations show how the neoclassical corrections and the fluctuations act back upon the mean profiles through fluxes and heating. The energy and entropy conservation laws for the mean profiles are derived. Total energy is conserved and there is no net turbulent heating. Entropy is produced by the action of fluxes flattening gradients, Ohmic heating, and the equilibration of mean temperatures. Finally, this framework is condensed, in the low-Mach-number limit, to a concise set of equations suitable for numerical implementation., Comment: 113 pages, 3 figures

In magnetized plasmas, a turbulent cascade occurs in phase space at scales smaller than the thermal Larmor radius ("sub-Larmor scales") [Phys. Rev. Lett. 103, 015003 (2009)]. When the turbulence is restricted to two spatial dimensions perpendicular to the background magnetic field, two independent cascades may take place simultaneously because of the presence of two collisionless invariants. In the present work, freely decaying turbulence of two-dimensional electrostatic gyrokinetics is investigated by means of phenomenological theory and direct numerical simulations. A dual cascade (forward and inverse cascades) is observed in velocity space as well as in position space, which we diagnose by means of nonlinear transfer functions for the collisionless invariants. We find that the turbulence tends to a time-asymptotic state, dominated by a single scale that grows in time. A theory of this asymptotic state is derived in the form of decay laws. Each case that we study falls into one of three regimes (weakly collisional, marginal, and strongly collisional), determined by a dimensionless number D*, a quantity analogous to the Reynolds number. The marginal state is marked by a critical number D* = D0 that is preserved in time. Turbulence initialized above this value become increasingly inertial in time, evolving toward larger and larger D*; turbulence initialized below D0 become more and more collisional, decaying to progressively smaller D*., Comment: 12 pages, 12 figures; replaced to match published version

Scaling laws for the transport and heating of trace heavy ions in low-frequency, magnetized plasma turbulence are derived and compared with direct numerical simulations. The predicted dependences of turbulent fluxes and heating on ion charge and mass number are found to agree with numerical results for both stationary and differentially rotating plasmas. Heavy ion momentum transport is found to increase with mass, and heavy ions are found to be preferentially heated, implying a mass-dependent ion temperature for very weakly collisional plasmas and for partially-ionized heavy ions in strongly rotating plasmas., Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, submitted to Physical Review Letters

In gyrokinetic theory there are two quadratic measures of fluctuation energy, left invariant under nonlinear interactions, that constrain the turbulence. The recent work of Plunk and Tatsuno [Phys. Rev. Lett. 106, 165003 (2011)] reported on the novel consequences that this constraint has on the direction and locality of spectral energy transfer. This paper builds on that work. We provide detailed analysis in support of the results of Plunk and Tatsuno but also significantly broaden the scope and use additional methods to address the problem of energy transfer. The perspective taken here is that the fluctuation energies are not merely formal invariants of an idealized model (two-dimensional gyrokinetics) but are general measures of gyrokinetic turbulence, i.e. quantities that can be used to predict the behavior of the turbulence. Though many open questions remain, this paper collects evidence in favor of this perspective by demonstrating in several contexts that constrained spectral energy transfer governs the dynamics., Comment: Final version as published. Some cosmetic changes and update of references

Sheared toroidal flows can cause bifurcations to zero-turbulent-transport states in tokamak plasmas. The maximum temperature gradients that can be reached are limited by subcritical turbulence driven by the parallel velocity gradient. Here it is shown that q/\epsilon (magnetic field pitch/inverse aspect ratio) is a critical control parameter for sheared tokamak turbulence. By reducing q/\epsilon, far higher temperature gradients can be achieved without triggering turbulence, in some instances comparable to those found experimentally in transport barriers. The zero-turbulence manifold is mapped out, in the zero-magnetic-shear limit, over the parameter space (\gamma_E, q/\epsilon, R/L_T), where \gamma_E is the perpendicular flow shear and R/L_T is the normalised inverse temperature gradient scale. The extent to which it can be constructed from linear theory is discussed., Comment: 5 Pages, 4 Figures, Submitted to PRL

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 this 'micro-tearing' mode in greater detail to uncover its key characteristics, and compare it with existing theoretical models of the phenomenon. This has been accomplished using a full numerical solution of the linear gyrokinetic-Maxwell equations. Importantly, the instability is found to be driven by the free energy in the electron temperature gradient as described in the literature. However, our calculations suggest it is not substantially affected by either of the destabilising mechanisms proposed in previous theoretical models. Instead the instability is destabilised by interactions with magnetic drifts, and the electrostatic potential. Further calculations reveal that the mode is not significantly destabilised by the flux surface shaping or the large trapped particle fraction present in the spherical tokamak. Its prevalence in spherical tokamak plasmas is primarily due to the higher value of plasma {\beta}, and the enhanced magnetic drifts due to the smaller radius of curvature., Comment: 12 pages, 12 figures

The nonlinear gyrokinetic code GS2 has been extended to treat non-axisymmetric stellarator geometry. Electromagnetic perturbations and multiple trapped particle regions are allowed. Here, linear, collisionless, electrostatic simulations of the quasi-axisymmetric, three-field period National Compact Stellarator Experiment (NCSX) design QAS3-C82 have been successfully benchmarked against the eigenvalue code FULL. Quantitatively, the linear stability calculations of GS2 and FULL agree to within ~10%., Comment: Submitted to Physics of Plasmas. 9 pages, 14 figures

A refined cascade model for kinetic turbulence in weakly collisional astrophysical plasmas is presented that includes both the transition between weak and strong turbulence and the effect of nonlocal interactions on the nonlinear transfer of energy. The model describes the transition between weak and strong MHD turbulence and the complementary transition from strong kinetic Alfven wave (KAW) turbulence to weak dissipating KAW turbulence, a new regime of weak turbulence in which the effects of shearing by large scale motions and kinetic dissipation play an important role. The inclusion of the effect of nonlocal motions on the nonlinear energy cascade rate in the dissipation range, specifically the shearing by large-scale motions, is proposed to explain the nearly power-law energy spectra observed in the dissipation range of both kinetic numerical simulations and solar wind observations., Comment: 20 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in Physics of Plasmas

Linear gyrokinetic simulations covering the collisional -- collisionless transitional regime of the tearing instability are performed. It is shown that the growth rate scaling with collisionality agrees well with that predicted by a two-fluid theory for a low plasma beta case in which ion kinetic dynamics are negligible. Electron wave-particle interactions (Landau damping), finite Larmor radius, and other kinetic effects invalidate the fluid theory in the collisionless regime, in which a general non-polytropic equation of state for pressure (temperature) perturbations should be considered. We also vary the ratio of the background ion to electron temperatures, and show that the scalings expected from existing calculations can be recovered, but only in the limit of very low beta., Comment: 7 pages, 10 figures, submitted to PoP

Two-dimensional electrostatic turbulence in magnetized weakly-collisional plasmas exhibits a cascade of entropy in phase space [Phys. Rev. Lett. 103, 015003 (2009)]. At scales smaller than the gyroradius, this cascade is characterized by the dimensionless ratio D of the collision time to the eddy turnover time measured at the scale of the thermal Larmor radius. When D >> 1, a broad spectrum of fluctuations at sub-Larmor scales is found in both position and velocity space. The distribution function develops structure as a function of v_{perp}, the velocity coordinate perpendicular to the local magnetic field. The cascade shows a local-scale nonlinear interaction in both position and velocity spaces, and Kolmogorov's scaling theory can be extended into phase space., Comment: 8 pages, 10 figures, Conference paper presented at 2009 Asia-Pacific Plasma Theory Conference. Ver.2 includes corrected typos & updated references

Direct coupling between a transport solver and local, nonlinear gyrokinetic calculations using the multiscale gyrokinetic code TRINITY [M. Barnes, Ph.D. thesis, arxiv:0901.2868] is described. The coupling of the microscopic and macroscopic physics is done within the framework of multiscale gyrokinetic theory, of which we present the assumptions and key results. An assumption of scale separation in space and time allows for the simulation of turbulence in small regions of the space-time grid, which are embedded in a coarse grid on which the transport equations are implicitly evolved. This leads to a reduction in computational expense of several orders of magnitude, making first-principles simulations of the full fusion device volume over the confinement time feasible on current computing resources. Numerical results from TRINITY simulations are presented and compared with experimental data from JET and ASDEX Upgrade plasmas., Comment: 12 pages, 13 figures, invited paper for 2009 APS-DPP meeting, submitted to Phys. Plasmas

Howes et al. Reply to Comment on "Kinetic Simulations of Magnetized Turbulence in Astrophysical Plasmas" arXiv:0711.4355, Comment: 1 page Reply to Matthaeus et al. Comment (PRL, 101, 149501, 2008) on our PRL 100, 065004 (2008) [ arXiv:0711.4355 ]

Electrostatic turbulence in weakly collisional, magnetized plasma can be interpreted as a cascade of entropy in phase space, which is proposed as a universal mechanism for dissipation of energy in magnetized plasma turbulence. When the nonlinear decorrelation time at the scale of the thermal Larmor radius is shorter than the collision time, a broad spectrum of fluctuations at sub-Larmor scales is numerically found in velocity and position space, with theoretically predicted scalings. The results are important because they identify what is probably a universal Kolmogorov-like regime for kinetic turbulence; and because any physical process that produces fluctuations of the gyrophase-independent part of the distribution function may, via the entropy cascade, result in turbulent heating at a rate that increases with the fluctuation amplitude, but is independent of the collision frequency., Comment: Revtex, 4 pages, 3 figures; replaced to match published version

A set of key properties for an ideal dissipation scheme in gyrokinetic simulations is proposed, and implementation of a model collision operator satisfying these properties is described. This operator is based on the exact linearized test-particle collision operator, with approximations to the field-particle terms that preserve conservation laws and an H-Theorem. It includes energy diffusion, pitch-angle scattering, and finite Larmor radius effects corresponding to classical (real-space) diffusion. The numerical implementation in the continuum gyrokinetic code GS2 is fully implicit and guarantees exact satisfaction of conservation properties. Numerical results are presented showing that the correct physics is captured over the entire range of collisionalities, from the collisionless to the strongly collisional regimes, without recourse to artificial dissipation., Comment: 13 pages, 8 figures, submitted to Physics of Plasmas; typos fixed

A new analytically and numerically manageable model collision operator is developed specifically for turbulence simulations. The like-particle collision operator includes both pitch-angle scattering and energy diffusion and satisfies the physical constraints required for collision operators: it conserves particles, momentum and energy, obeys Boltzmann's H-theorem (collisions cannot decrease entropy), vanishes on a Maxwellian, and efficiently dissipates small-scale structure in the velocity space. The process of transforming this collision operator into the gyroaveraged form for use in gyrokinetic simulations is detailed. The gyroaveraged model operator is shown to have more suitable behavior at small scales in phase space than previously suggested models. A model operator for electron-ion collisions is also presented., Comment: revtex, 12 pages

Finite Larmor radius (FLR) effects on non-diffusive transport in a prototypical zonal flow with drift waves are studied in the context of a simplified chaotic transport model. The model consists of a superposition of drift waves of the linearized Hasegawa-Mima equation and a zonal shear flow perpendicular to the density gradient. High frequency FLR effects are incorporated by gyroaveraging the ExB velocity. Transport in the direction of the density gradient is negligible and we therefore focus on transport parallel to the zonal flows. A prescribed asymmetry produces strongly asymmetric non- Gaussian PDFs of particle displacements, with L\'evy flights in one direction but not the other. For zero Larmor radius, a transition is observed in the scaling of the second moment of particle displacements. However, FLR effects seem to eliminate this transition. The PDFs of trapping and flight events show clear evidence of algebraic scaling with decay exponents depending on the value of the Larmor radii. The shape and spatio-temporal self-similar anomalous scaling of the PDFs of particle displacements are reproduced accurately with a neutral, asymmetric effective fractional diffusion model., Comment: 14 pages, 13 figures, submitted to Physics of Plasmas

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 in the presence of some (however small) degree of collisionality. The smallness of the collision rate is compensated by the emergence of small-scale structure in the velocity space. For gyrokinetic turbulence, a nonlinear perpendicular phase mixing mechanism is identified and described as a turbulent cascade of entropy fluctuations simultaneously occurring at spatial scales smaller than the ion gyroscale and in velocity space. Scaling relations for the resulting fluctuation spectra are derived. An estimate for the collisional cutoff is provided. The importance of adequately modeling and resolving collisions in gyrokinetic simulations is biefly discussed, as well as the relevance of these results to understanding the dissipation-range turbulence in the solar wind and the electrostatic microturbulence in fusion plasmas., Comment: iop revtex style, 14 pages, 1 figure; submitted to PPCF; invited talk for EPS Conference on Plasma Physics, Crete, June 2008; Replaced to match published version

This letter presents the first ab initio, fully electromagnetic, kinetic simulations of magnetized turbulence in a homogeneous, weakly collisional plasma at the scale of the ion Larmor radius (ion gyroscale). Magnetic and electric-field energy spectra show a break at the ion gyroscale; the spectral slopes are consistent with scaling predictions for critically balanced turbulence of Alfven waves above the ion gyroscale (spectral index -5/3) and of kinetic Alfven waves below the ion gyroscale (spectral indices of -7/3 for magnetic and -1/3 for electric fluctuations). This behavior is also qualitatively consistent with in situ measurements of turbulence in the solar wind. Our findings support the hypothesis that the frequencies of turbulent fluctuations in the solar wind remain well below the ion cyclotron frequency both above and below the ion gyroscale., Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, submitted to Physical Review Letters

We present a theoretical framework for plasma turbulence in astrophysical plasmas (solar wind, interstellar medium, galaxy clusters, accretion disks). The key assumptions are that the turbulence is anisotropic with respect to the mean magnetic field and frequencies are low compared to the ion cyclotron frequency. The energy injected at the outer scale scale has to be converted into heat, which ultimately cannot be done without collisions. A KINETIC CASCADE develops that brings the energy to collisional scales both in space and velocity. Its nature depends on the physics of plasma fluctuations. In each of the physically distinct scale ranges, the kinetic problem is systematically reduced to a more tractable set of equations. In the "inertial range" above the ion gyroscale, the kinetic cascade splits into a cascade of Alfvenic fluctuations, which are governed by the RMHD equations at both the collisional and collisionless scales, and a passive cascade of compressive fluctuations, which obey a linear kinetic equation along the moving field lines associated with the Alfvenic component. In the "dissipation range" between the ion and electron gyroscales, there are again two cascades: the kinetic-Alfven-wave (KAW) cascade governed by two fluid-like Electron RMHD equations and a passive phase-space cascade of ion entropy fluctuations. The latter cascade brings the energy of the inertial-range fluctuations that was damped by collisionless wave-particle interaction at the ion gyroscale to collisional scales in the phase space and leads to ion heating. The KAW energy is similarly damped at the electron gyroscale and converted into electron heat. Kolmogorov-style scaling relations are derived for these cascades. Astrophysical and space-physical applications are discussed in detail., Comment: aastex using emulateapj, 65 pages, 10 figures; replaced to match published version

Theoretical approaches to low-frequency magnetized turbulence in collisionless and weakly collisional astrophysical plasmas are reviewed. The proper starting point for an analytical description of these plasmas is kinetic theory, not fluid equations. The anisotropy of the turbulence is used to systematically derive a series of reduced analytical models. Above the ion gyroscale, it is shown rigourously that the Alfven waves decouple from the electron-density and magnetic-field-strength fluctuations and satisfy the Reduced MHD equations. The density and field-strength fluctuations (slow waves and the entropy mode in the fluid limit), determined kinetically, are passively mixed by the Alfven waves. The resulting hybrid fluid-kinetic description of the low-frequency turbulence is valid independently of collisionality. Below the ion gyroscale, the turbulent cascade is partially converted into a cascade of kinetic Alfven waves, damped at the electron gyroscale. This cascade is described by a pair of fluid-like equations, which are a reduced version of the Electron MHD. The development of these theoretical models is motivated by observations of the turbulence in the solar wind and interstellar medium. In the latter case, the turbulence is spatially inhomogeneous and the anisotropic Alfvenic turbulence in the presence of a strong mean field may coexist with isotropic MHD turbulence that has no mean field., Comment: IOP latex, 16 pages, 1 figure; invited topical review at International Congress on Plasma Physics, Kiev 22-26 May 2006; accepted for publication in Plasma Phys. Control. Fusion

We study the nonlinear evolution of the resistive tearing mode in slab geometry in two dimensions. We show that, in the strongly driven regime (large Delta'), a collapse of the X-point occurs once the island width exceeds a certain critical value ~1/Delta'. A current sheet is formed and the reconnection is exponential in time with a growth rate ~eta^1/2, where eta is the resistivity. If the aspect ratio of the current sheet is sufficiently large, the sheet can itself become tearing-mode unstable, giving rise to secondary islands, which then coalesce with the original island. The saturated state depends on the value of Delta'. For small Delta', the saturation amplitude is ~Delta' and quantitatively agrees with the theoretical prediction. If Delta' is large enough for the X-point collapse to have occured, the saturation amplitude increases noticeably and becomes independent of Delta'., Comment: revtex4, 4 pages, 18 figures

This is a brief account of our numerical study of the tearing mode reconnection. We demonstrate two main points. First, we show that, given sufficiently small resistivity, the Rutherford regime always exists; larger values of Delta' require smaller values of resistivity. Rutherford's negligible-inertia assumption is validated and the asymptotically linear dependence of the time derivative of the island width on the resistivity and Delta' is confirmed. Second, we find that, at large Delta', the Rutherford regime is followed by a nonlinear stage of fast growth linked to X-point collapse and formation of a current sheet. This causes the reconnection to become Sweet-Parke (SP) like. The signature resistivity^{1/2} scaling of the effective island growth rate is, indeed, found in this nonlinear stage. The SP stage culminates in the saturation of the mode, which can, thus, be achieved much faster than via Rutherford regime., Comment: latex, 4 pages, 8 figures; Paper 4-208, Proceedings of the 31st EPS Conference on Plasma Physics, London 28 June - 2 July 2004