| 1. |
- Wilkie, George, 1983, et al.
(författare)
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First principles of modelling the stabilization of microturbulence by fast ions
- 2018
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Ingår i: Nuclear Fusion. - : IOP PUBLISHING LTD. - 0029-5515 .- 1741-4326. ; 58:8
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The observation that fast ions stabilize ion-temperature-gradient-driven microturbulence has profound implications for future fusion reactors. It is also important in optimizing the performance of present-day devices. In this work, we examine in detail the phenomenology of fast ion stabilization and present a reduced model which describes this effect. This model is derived from the high-energy limit of the gyrokinetic equation and extends the existing 'dilution' model to account for nontrivial fast ion kinetics. Our model provides a physically-transparent explanation for the observed stabilization and makes several key qualitative predictions. Firstly, that different classes of fast ions, depending on their radial density or temperature variation, have different stabilizing properties. Secondly, that zonal flows are an important ingredient in this effect precisely because the fast ion zonal response is negligible. Finally, that in the limit of highly-energetic fast ions, their response approaches that of the 'dilution' model; in particular, alpha particles are expected to have little, if any, stabilizing effect on plasma turbulence. We support these conclusions through detailed linear and nonlinear gyrokinetic simulations.
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| 2. |
- Hesslow, Linnea, 1993, et al.
(författare)
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Effect of partially ionized impurities and radiation on the effective critical electric field for runaway generation
- 2018
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Ingår i: Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion. - : IOP Publishing. - 1361-6587 .- 0741-3335. ; 60:7
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We derive a formula for the effective critical electric field for runaway generation and decay that accounts for the presence of partially ionized impurities in combination with synchrotron and bremsstrahlung radiation losses. We show that the effective critical field is drastically larger than the classical Connor-Hastie field, and even exceeds the value obtained by replacing the free electron density by the total electron density (including both free and bound electrons). Using a kinetic equation solver with an inductive electric field, we show that the runaway current decay after an impurity injection is expected to be linear in time and proportional to the effective critical electric field in highly inductive tokamak devices. This is relevant for the efficacy of mitigation strategies for runaway electrons since it reduces the required amount of injected impurities to achieve a certain current decay rate.
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| 3. |
- Wilkie, George, 1983
(författare)
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Analytic slowing-down distributions as modified by turbulent transport
- 2018
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Ingår i: Journal of Plasma Physics. - 0022-3778 .- 1469-7807. ; 84:6
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The effect of electrostatic microturbulence on fast particles rapidly decreases at high energy, but can be significant at moderate energy. Previous studies found that, in addition to changes in the energetic particle density, this results in non-trivial changes to the equilibrium velocity distribution. These effects have implications for plasma heating and the stability of Alfven eigenmodes, but make multiscale simulations much more difficult without further approximations. Here, several related analytic model distribution functions are derived from first principles. A single dimensionless parameter characterizes the relative strength of turbulence relative to collisions, and this parameter appears as an exponent in the model distribution functions. Even the most simple of these models reproduces key features of the numerical phase-space transport solution and provides a useful a priori heuristic for determining how strong the effect of turbulence is on the redistribution of energetic particles in toroidal plasmas.
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