| 1. |
- Chapman, I.T., et al.
(författare)
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Macroscopic Stability of High b MAST Plasmas
- 2011
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Ingår i: Nuclear Fusion. - 1741-4326 .- 0029-5515. ; 51, s. 073040-
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The high-beta capability of the spherical tokamak, coupled with a suite of world-leading diagnostics on MAST, has facilitated significant improvements in the understanding of performance-limiting core instabilities in high performance plasmas. For instance, the newly installed motional Stark effect diagnostic, with radial resolution
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| 2. |
- Chapman, I. T., et al.
(författare)
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The physics of sawtooth stabilization
- 2007
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Ingår i: Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion. - 0741-3335 .- 1361-6587. ; 49:12B, s. B385-B394
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Long period sawteeth have been observed to result in low-beta triggering of neo-classical tearing modes, which can significantly degrade plasma confinement. Consequently, a detailed physical understanding of sawtooth behaviour is critical, especially for ITER where fusion-born a particles are likely to lead to very long sawtooth periods. Many techniques have been developed to control, and in particular to destabilize the sawteeth. The application of counter-current neutral beam injection (NBI) in JET has resulted in shorter sawtooth periods than in Ohmic plasmas. This result has been explained because, firstly, the counter-passing fast ions give a destabilizing contribution to the n=1 internal kink mode-which is accepted to be related to sawtooth oscillations-and secondly, the flow shear strongly influences the stabilizing trapped particles. A similar experimental result has been observed in counter-NBI heated plasmas in MAST. However, the strong toroidal flows in spherical tokamaks mean that the sawtooth behaviour is determined by the gyroscopic flow stabilization of the kink mode rather than kinetic effects. In NBI heated plasmas in smaller conventional aspect-ratio tokamaks, such as TEXTOR, the flow and kinetic effects compete to give different sawtooth behaviour. Other techniques applied to destabilize sawteeth are the application of electron cyclotron current drive (ECCD) or ion cyclotron resonance heating (ICRH). In JET, it has been observed that localized ICRH is able to destabilize sawteeth which were otherwise stabilized by a co-existing population of energetic trapped ions in the core. This is explained through the dual role of the ICRH in reducing the critical magnetic shear required to trigger a sawtooth crash, and the increase in the local magnetic shear which results from driving current near the q=1 rational surface. Sawtooth control in ITER could be provided by a combination of ECCD and co-passing off-axis negative-NBI fast ions.
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| 3. |
- Graff, M., et al.
(författare)
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Genome-wide physical activity interactions in adiposity. A meta-analysis of 200,452 adults
- 2017
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Ingår i: PLoS Genet. - : Public Library of Science (PLoS). - 1553-7404 .- 1553-7390. ; 13:4
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Physical activity (PA) may modify the genetic effects that give rise to increased risk of obesity. To identify adiposity loci whose effects are modified by PA, we performed genome-wide interaction meta-analyses of BMI and BMI-adjusted waist circumference and waist-hip ratio from up to 200,452 adults of European (n = 180,423) or other ancestry (n = 20,029). We standardized PA by categorizing it into a dichotomous variable where, on average, 23% of participants were categorized as inactive and 77% as physically active. While we replicate the interaction with PA for the strongest known obesity-risk locus in the FTO gene, of which the effect is attenuated by similar to 30% in physically active individuals compared to inactive individuals, we do not identify additional loci that are sensitive to PA. In additional genome-wide meta-analyses adjusting for PA and interaction with PA, we identify 11 novel adiposity loci, suggesting that accounting for PA or other environmental factors that contribute to variation in adiposity may facilitate gene discovery.
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| 4. |
- Justice, A. E., et al.
(författare)
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Genome-wide meta-analysis of 241,258 adults accounting for smoking behaviour identifies novel loci for obesity traits
- 2017
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Ingår i: Nature Communications. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2041-1723. ; 8
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Few genome-wide association studies (GWAS) account for environmental exposures, like smoking, potentially impacting the overall trait variance when investigating the genetic contribution to obesity-related traits. Here, we use GWAS data from 51,080 current smokers and 190,178 nonsmokers (87% European descent) to identify loci influencing BMI and central adiposity, measured as waist circumference and waist-to-hip ratio both adjusted for BMI. We identify 23 novel genetic loci, and 9 loci with convincing evidence of gene-smoking interaction (GxSMK) on obesity-related traits. We show consistent direction of effect for all identified loci and significance for 18 novel and for 5 interaction loci in an independent study sample. These loci highlight novel biological functions, including response to oxidative stress, addictive behaviour, and regulatory functions emphasizing the importance of accounting for environment in genetic analyses. Our results suggest that tobacco smoking may alter the genetic susceptibility to overall adiposity and body fat distribution.
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| 5. |
- Liu, Yueqiang, 1971, et al.
(författare)
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Resistive wall mode control code maturity: progress and specific examples
- 2010
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Ingår i: Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion. - : IOP Publishing. - 1361-6587 .- 0741-3335. ; 52:10
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Two issues of the resistive wall mode (RWM) control code maturity are addressed: the inclusion of advanced mode damping physics beyond the ideal MHD description, and the possibility of taking into account the influence of 3D features of the conducting structures on the mode stability and control. Examples of formulations and computational results are given, using the MARS-F/K codes and the CarMa code. The MARS-K calculations for a DIII-D plasma shows that the fast ion contributions, which can give additional drift kinetic stabilization in the perturbative approach, also drive an extra unstable branch of mode in the self-consistent kinetic modelling. The CarMa modelling for the ITER steady state advanced plasmas shows about 20% reduction in the RWM growth rate by the volumetric blanket modules. The multi-mode analysis predicts a weak interaction between the n = 0 and the n = 1 RWMs, due to the 3D ITER walls. The CarMa code is also successfully applied to model the realistic feedback experiments in RFX.
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| 6. |
- Lloyd, B., et al.
(författare)
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Overview of physics results from MAST
- 2011
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Ingår i: Nuclear Fusion. - : IOP Publishing. - 1741-4326 .- 0029-5515. ; 51:9, s. 094013 (paper no.)-
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Major developments on the Mega Amp Spherical Tokamak (MAST) have enabled important advances in support of ITER and the physics basis of a spherical tokamak (ST) based component test facility (CTF), as well as providing new insight into underlying tokamak physics. For example, L-H transition studies benefit from high spatial and temporal resolution measurements of pedestal profile evolution (temperature, density and radial electric field) and in support of pedestal stability studies the edge current density profile has been inferred from motional Stark effect measurements. The influence of the q-profile and E x B flow shear on transport has been studied in MAST and equilibrium flow shear has been included in gyro-kinetic codes, improving comparisons with the experimental data. H-modes exhibit a weaker q and stronger collisionality dependence of heat diffusivity than implied by IPB98(gamma, 2) scaling, which may have important implications for the design of an ST-based CTF. ELM mitigation, an important issue for ITER, has been demonstrated by applying resonant magnetic perturbations (RMPs) using both internal and external coils, but full stabilization of type-I ELMs has not been observed. Modelling shows the importance of including the plasma response to the RMP fields. MAST plasmas with q > 1 and weak central magnetic shear regularly exhibit a long-lived saturated ideal internal mode. Measured plasma braking in the presence of this mode compares well with neo-classical toroidal viscosity theory. In support of basic physics understanding, high resolution Thomson scattering measurements are providing new insight into sawtooth crash dynamics and neo-classical tearing mode critical island widths. Retarding field analyser measurements show elevated ion temperatures in the scrape-off layer of L-mode plasmas and, in the presence of type-I ELMs, ions with energy greater than 500 eV are detected 20 cm outside the separatrix. Disruption mitigation by massive gas injection has reduced divertor heat loads by up to 70%.
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| 7. |
- Connor, J W, et al.
(författare)
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High-m kink/tearing modes in cylindrical geometry
- 2014
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Ingår i: Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion. - : IOP Publishing. - 1361-6587 .- 0741-3335. ; 56:12
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The global ideal kink equation, for cylindrical geometry and zero beta, is simplified in the high poloidal mode number limit and used to determine the tearing stability parameter, Δ'. In the presence of a steep monotonic current gradient, Δ' becomes a function of a parameter, σ0, characterising the ratio of the maximum current gradient to magnetic shear and xs, characterising the separation of the resonant surface from the maximum of the current gradient. In equilibria containing a current 'spike', so that there is a non-monotonic current profile, Δ' also depends on two parameters: κ, related to the ratio of the curvature of the current density at its maximum to the magnetic shear and xs, which now represents the separation of the resonance from the point of maximum current density. The relation of our results to earlier studies of tearing modes and to recent gyrokinetic calculations of current driven instabilities, is discussed, together with potential implications for the stability of the tokamak pedestal.
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| 8. |
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| 9. |
- Liu, Yueqiang, 1971, et al.
(författare)
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Modification of ∆′ by magnetic feedback and kinetic effects
- 2012
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Ingår i: Physics of Plasmas. - : AIP Publishing. - 1089-7674 .- 1070-664X. ; 19, s. 092510-
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Two possible ways of modifying the linear tearing mode index, by active magnetic feed- back and by drift kinetic effects of deeply trapped particles, are analytically investigated. Mag- netic feedback schemes, studied in this work, are found generally stabilizing for ∆′ . The drift kinetic effects from both thermal particles and hot ions tend to reduce the power of the large solution from the outer region. This generally leads to a destabilization of ∆′ for the toroidal analytic equilibria considered here.
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| 10. |
- Pusztai, Istvan, 1983, et al.
(författare)
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Collisional model of quasilinear transport driven by toroidal electrostatic ion temperature gradient modes
- 2009
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Ingår i: Physics of Plasmas. - : AIP Publishing. - 1089-7674 .- 1070-664X. ; 16:7, s. 072305-
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The stability of ion temperature gradient (ITG) modes and the quasilinear fluxes driven by them are analyzed in weakly collisional tokamak plasmas using a semianalytical model based on an approximate solution of the gyrokinetic equation, where collisions are modeled by a Lorentz operator. Although the frequencies and growth rates of ITG modes far from threshold are only very weakly sensitive to the collisionality, the $a/L_{Ti}$ threshold for stability is affected significantly by electron-ion collisions. The decrease in collisionality destabilizes the ITG mode driving an inward particle flux, which leads to the steepening of the density profile. Closed analytical expressions for the electron and ion density and temperature responses have been derived without expansion in the smallness of the magnetic drift frequencies. The results have been compared with gyrokinetic simulations with GYRO and illustrated by showing the scalings of the eigenvalues and quasilinear fluxes with collisionality, temperature scale lengt, and magnetic shear.
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