Suppression of electron temperature gradient turbulence via negative magnetic shear in NSTX

Negative magnetic shear is found to suppress electron turbulence and improve electron thermal transport for plasmas in the National Spherical Torus Experiment (NSTX). Sufficiently negative magnetic shear results in a transition out of a stiff profile regime. Density fluctuation measurements from high-k microwave scattering are verified to be the electron temperature gradient (ETG) mode by matching measured rest frequency and linear growth rate to gyrokinetic calculations. Fluctuation suppression under negligible E×B shear conditions confirm that negative magnetic shear alone is sufficient for ETG suppression. Measured electron temperature gradients can significantly exceed ETG critical gradients with ETG mode activity reduced to intermittent bursts, while electron thermal diffusivity improves to below 0.1?electron gyro-Bohms.     

Time window for magnetic reconnection in plasma configurations with velocity shear

It is shown that the rate of magnetic field line reconnection can be clocked by the evolution of the large-scale processes that are responsible for the formation of the current layers where reconnection can take place. In unsteady plasma configurations, such as those produced by the onset of the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability in a plasma with a velocity shear, qualitatively different magnetic structures are produced depending on how fast the reconnection process develops on the external clock set by the evolving large-scale configuration.     

Self-regulation of E x B flow shear via plasma turbulence

The momentum balance has been applied to the ExB flow in the edge region of a reversed field pinch (RFP) configuration. All terms, including those involving fluctuations, have been measured in stationary condition in the edge region of the Extrap-T2R RFP experiment. It is found that the component of the Reynolds stress driven by electrostatic fluctuations is the term playing the major role in driving the shear of the ExB flow to a value marginal for turbulent suppression, so that the results are in favor of a turbulence self-regulating mechanism underlying the momentum balance at the edge. Balancing the sheared flow driving and damping terms, the plasma viscosity is found anomalous and consistent with the diffusivity due to electrostatic turbulence.     

Small scale velocity jumps in shear turbulence

We measure structure functions and structures in uniformly sheared strong turbulence using an array of hot-wire velocity sensors. We find that the large-scale shear persists down to the smallest scales. There is a marked asymmetry between velocity increments measured in the shear direction, and those measured in the plane perpendicular to it. In the shear direction the scaling exponents tend to a constant, signifying the presence of small-scale cliffs. Direct evidence for those is presented by the spatial structure of the strongest velocity gradients.     

Transition to turbulence in a shear flow

We analyze the properties of a 19-dimensional Galerkin approximation to a parallel shear flow. The laminar flow with a sinusoidal shape is stable for all Reynolds numbers Re. For sufficiently large Re additional stationary flows occur; they are all unstable. The lifetimes of finite amplitude perturbations shows a fractal dependence on amplitude and Reynolds number. These findings are in accord with observations on plane Couette flow and suggest a universality of this transition scenario in shear flows.     

A turbulence model in unbounded smooth shear flows: The weak turbulence approach

We discuss a new concept of the subcritical transition to turbulence in unbounded smooth (noninflectional) spectrally stable shear flows. This concept (the so-called bypass transition) follows from considering the nonnormality of the linear dynamics of vortex disturbances in shear flows and is most easily interpreted by tracing the evolution of spatial Fourier harmonics (SFHs) of the disturbances. The key features of the concept are as follows: the transition of the flow by only finite-amplitude vortex disturbances despite the fact that the phenomenon is energetically supported by a linear process (the transient growth of SFHs); the anisotropy of processes in the k space; the onset of chaos due to the dynamical (not stochastic) process—nonlinear processes that close the transition feedback loop by the angular redistribution of SFHs in the k space. The evolution of two-dimensional small-scale vortex disturbances in a parallel flow with a uniform shear is analyzed within the weak turbulence approach. This numerical test analysis is carried out to prove the most problematic statement of the concept, the existence of a positive feedback caused by the nonlinear process. Numerical calculations also show the existence of a threshold: if the amplitude of the initial disturbance exceeds the threshold value, the self-maintenance of disturbances becomes realistic. The latter is a characteristic feature of the flow transition to the turbulent state and its maintenance.     

Competing mechanisms of plasma transport in inhomogeneous configurations with velocity shear: the solar-wind interaction with earth's magnetosphere

Two-dimensional simulations of the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability in an inhomogeneous compressible plasma with a density gradient show that, in a transverse magnetic field configuration, the vortex pairing process and the Rayleigh-Taylor secondary instability compete during the nonlinear evolution of the vortices. Two different regimes exist depending on the value of the density jump across the velocity shear layer. These regimes have different physical signatures that can be crucial for the interpretation of satellite data of the interaction of the solar wind with the magnetospheric plasma.     

Decay and growth laws in homogeneous shear turbulence

Homogeneous anisotropic turbulence has been widely studied in the past decades, both numerically and experimentally. Shear flows have received a particular attention because of the numerous physical phenomena they exhibit. In the present paper, both the decay and growth of anisotropy in homogeneous shear flows at high Reynolds numbers are revisited thanks to a recent eddy-damped quasi-normal Markovian closure adapted to homogeneous anisotropic turbulence. The emphasis is put on several aspects: an asymptotic model for the slow part of the pressure–strain tensor is derived for the return to isotropy process when mean velocity gradients are released. Then, a general decay law for purely anisotropic quantities in Batchelor turbulence is proposed. At last, a discussion is proposed to explain the scattering of global quantities obtained in DNS and experiments in sustained shear flows: the emphasis is put on the exponential growth rate of the kinetic energy and on the shear parameter.     

Field-reversed configurations in an unmagnetized plasma

An oscillating magnetic field is applied with a loop antenna to an unmagnetized plasma. At small amplitudes the field is evanescent. At large amplitudes the field magnetizes the electrons, which allows deeper field penetration in the whistler modes. Field-reversed configurations are formed at each half cycle. Electrons are energized. Transient whistler instabilities produce high-frequency oscillations in the magnetized plasma volume.     

Transport reduction by rotation shear in tokamak-edge turbulence

Effects of externally imposed and self-generated poloidal flows on turbulent transport in the edge region of a tokamak are investigated using 3D nonlinear global simulations of resistive pressure-gradient-driven turbulence. Transport reduction is found to be due to synergetic changes in the fluctuation amplitude and in the dephasing of the fluctuations. A scaling of the fluctuation level and turbulent diffusivity with E x B flow shear strength is deduced from these simulations. These scalings agree with recent experimental observations on edge biasing as well as with analytical models.     

Statistics of velocity gradients in wall-bounded shear flow turbulence

The statistical properties of velocity gradients in a wall-bounded turbulent channel flow are discussed on the basis of three-dimensional direct numerical simulations. Our analysis is concentrated on the trend of the statistical properties of the local enstrophy and the energy dissipation rate with increasing distance from the wall. We detect a sensitive dependence of the largest amplitudes of both fields (which correspond with the tail of the distribution) on the spectral resolution. The probability density functions of each single field as well as their joint distribution vary significantly with increasing distance from the wall. The largest fluctuations of the velocity gradients are found in the logarithmic layer. This is in agreement with recent experiments which observe a bursting of hairpin vortex packets into the logarithmic region.     

Measurement of turbulence decorrelation during transport barrier evolution in a high-temperature fusion plasma

A low power polychromatic beam of microwaves is used to diagnose the behavior of turbulent fluctuations in the core of the JT-60U tokamak during the evolution of the internal transport barrier. A continuous reduction in the size of turbulent structures is observed concomitant with the reduction of the density scale length during the evolution of the internal transport barrier. The density correlation length decreases to the order of the ion gyroradius, in contrast with the much longer scale lengths observed earlier in the discharge, while the density fluctuation level remain similar to the level before transport barrier formation.     

Treatment of advanced divertor configurations in the flux-coordinate independent turbulence code GRILLIX

Advanced divertor configurations modify the magnetic geometry of the divertor to achieve a combination of strong magnetic flux expansion, increased connection length and higher divertor volume—to improve detachment stability, neutral/impurity confinement and heat-channel broadening. In this paper, we discuss the modification of the flux-coordinate independent (FCI) turbulence code GRILLIX to treat generalized magnetic geometry, to allow for the investigation of the effect of magnetic geometry on turbulent structures in the edge and scrape-off layer (SOL). The development of grids and parallel operators from numerically defined magnetic equilibria is discussed, as is the application of boundary conditions via penalization, with the finite-width method generalized to treat complex non-conformal boundaries. Initial testing of hyperbolic (advection) and parabolic (diffusion) test cases are presented for the Snowflake scenario.     

基于自适应滤波器的大气湍流噪声抑制

为了解决大气湍流效应所引起的光无线通信系统中的衰落问题,建立了与大气湍流噪声及其它加性噪声有关的信号模型,实现了最大输出信噪比可提高3-20dB的匹配滤波器。根据最大似然比准则,推导了强度调制/直接探测(IM/DD)的光无线通信系统的最佳判决门限。采用自适应滤波器实现了对探测门限中所含的信号和湍流的统计值的预测,该自适应门限探测技术对大气湍流噪声有很好的抑制作用,在强湍流情况下,可降低系统的误码率到10-5以下。     

Review of plasma turbulence experiments

Understandings of turbulent plasma have been developed along with nuclear fusion research for more than a half century. Long international research has produced discoveries concerning turbulent plasma that allow us to notice the hidden nature and physics questions that could contribute to other scientific fields and the development of technologies. Guiding concepts have been established up to now that stimulate investigations on turbulent plasma. Research based on concepts concerning symmetry breaking and global linkage requires observing the entire field of plasma turbulence for an ultimate understanding of plasma. This article reviews the achievements as well as contemporary problems regarding turbulence experiments associated with strongly magnetized plasmas in the last and present century, and introduces forthcoming experimental issues, including new diagnostics and physics-oriented devices related to plasma turbulence.     

Homoclinic tangle on the edge of shear turbulence

Experiments and simulations lend mounting evidence for the edge state hypothesis on subcritical transition to turbulence, which asserts that simple states of fluid motion mediate between laminar and turbulent shear flow as their stable manifolds separate the two in state space. In this Letter we describe flows homoclinic to a time-periodic edge state that display the essential properties of turbulent bursting. During a burst, vortical structures and the associated energy dissipation are highly localized near the wall, in contrast with the familiar regeneration cycle.     

Magnetic shear damping of dissipative drift wave turbulence

The influence of local and global magnetic field line shear on structure formation and transport in dissipative drift-Alfvén turbulence is explored. It is found that the generation of zonal flow shear is connected to magnetic shear in ways not accounted previously. The concept of a locally sheared slab flux tube model (including toroidicity) is introduced in order to extend previous analyses to general local variations of magnetic field line shear. It is shown that local shear damping is efficient even when flux surface averaged shear is low.     

Compressibility in solar wind plasma turbulence

Incompressible magnetohydrodynamics is often assumed to describe solar wind turbulence. We use extended self-similarity to reveal scaling in the structure functions of density fluctuations in the solar wind. The obtained scaling is then compared with that found in the inertial range of quantities identified as passive scalars in other turbulent systems. We find that these are not coincident. This implies that either solar wind turbulence is compressible or that straightforward comparison of structure functions does not adequately capture its inertial range properties.     

Superheat turbulence in gas discharged plasma

The influence of the electron concentration and temperature fluctuations on local thermodynamic equilibrium (LTE) in a gas-discharge plasma due to superheat turbulence development is analyzed. Data for the noble-gas atmospheric plasmas Ar and He (T=6-18 kK) and air ( T=4-9 kK) are given. It is shown that superheat turbulence causes deviation from LTE when parameter-space gradients are absent. As a result, the influence of superheat turbulence for weakly radiative gases (He, H₂) is considerably greater than for strong radiative gases (Ar, Xe, etc). The artificial excitement of superheat turbulence in plasma without any current by means of external electric field fluctuations is demonstrated