Ion acceleration during reconnection in MAST

Spontaneous acceleration of ions to suprathermal energies is observed during magnetic reconnection in the Mega-Ampere Spherical Tokamak (MAST). A high-energy tail is observed in the ion-distribution function following each internal reconnection event in Ohmic discharges. This phenomenon is explained in terms of runaway ion acceleration in the electric field induced by the reconnection.     

Formation of Suprathermal Particle Fluxes in a Strongly Turbulent Plasma

We consider the problem on the formation of suprathermal particle fluxes by electrostatic structures in strongly turbulent cosmic plasmas. It is shown that regions with a strong plasma turbulence can be large accelerators of charged particles. We give solutions of the stationary kinetic equation in a turbulent layer for different acceleration regimes and estimate the efficiency of diffusion over the longitudinal and transverse velocities of particles with respect to the magnetic field. The transverse diffusion in velocity space is more efficient for ions and leads to strong isotropization of ion fluxes. Electrons move almost along the magnetic field. We reveal the conditions under which the regular force in a nonuniform magnetic field influences the stochastic-acceleration process. The average energy of axial motion of the particles and the particle fluxes at large distances from the injection region are estimated. Ions and electrons can be accelerated up to comparable energies. We analyze the characteristic features of the motion of the relativistic-particle beams. It is shown that strong plasma turbulence can form particle beams with specific energies. The proposed mechanism is useful for explanation of the properties of energetic particles in cosmic plasmas with magnetic-field-aligned currents, e.g., in high-latitude regions of planetary magnetospheres, force-free configurations of the solar corona, and the solar wind.     

Spatially resolved measurements of ion heating during impulsive reconnection in the Madison Symmetric Torus

The impurity ion temperature evolution has been measured during three types of impulsive reconnection events in the Madison Symmetric Torus reversed field pinch. During an edge reconnection event, the drop in stored magnetic energy is small and ion heating is observed to be limited to the outer half of the plasma. Conversely, during a global reconnection event the drop in stored magnetic energy is large, and significant heating is observed at all radii. For both kinds of events, the drop in magnetic energy is sufficient to explain the increase in ion thermal energy. However, not all types of reconnection lead to ion heating. During a core reconnection event, both the stored magnetic energy and impurity ion temperature remain constant. The results suggest that a drop in magnetic energy is required for ions to be heated during reconnection, and that when this occurs heating is localized near the reconnection layer.     

Electron cooling of high-Z ion beams parallel to a guidemagnetic field

The cooling of high-Z ion beams through collisions with electrons whose temperature parallel to a guide magnetic field is considerably lower than their perpendicular temperature is considered. For initial electron temperatures, magnetic fields, and charged-particle densities, electrons tend to be trapped in the vicinity of their nearest ion neighbor. This results in an energy exchange with the ions that is qualitatively different from conventional models, where electron cooling is described in terms of small angle collisions or within the linearized dielectric response theory. Such models are justified for situations where the potential energy of interactions is small compared to the relevant kinetic energy; e.g. for light ions. For the case of high-Z ions, however, it is the trapping process itself that drives the cooling. Using a variety of parameterizations of the electron shielding of the ions, it is found that resulting steady-state ion temperature parallel to the magnetic field is less than a factor of ten higher than the original parallel electron temperature. The e-folding times of approach to the equilibrium temperature have been found to be on the order of a few milliseconds for Z in the range of 20 and above. This result is encouraging with respect to the production of ultracold beams or even a crystalline heavy-ion state     

Influence of the temperature of positive ions on the sheath formation and parameter space region in magnetized electronegative plasmas

The parameter space regions and the sheath formation in an electronegative discharge in the presence of thermal positive ions and oblique magnetic field are investigated. It is assumed that the negative species are in thermal equilibrium and the positive ions have a finite temperature. Three regimes of uniform, multilayer stratified and pure stratified are found as functions of positive and negative ion temperature, electronegativity and the magnetic field. The influence of positive ion temperature in the presence of magnetic field on the profiles of the positive ion density, positive ion velocity and electric potential are investigated. The positive ion flux at the sheath edge as a function of magnetic field is obtained for different collisionality and positive and negative ion temperatures. Finally, the influence of the magnetic field, collision frequency and the positive ion temperature on the parameter space regions are discussed.     

Ion separation due to magnetic field penetration into a multispecies plasma

The magnetic field, the electron density, and the ion velocities in a multispecies plasma conducting a high fast-rising current are determined using simultaneous spectroscopic measurements. It is found that ion separation occurs in which a light-ion plasma is pushed ahead while a heavy-ion plasma lags behind the magnetic piston. We show that most of the momentum imparted by the magnetic field pressure is taken by the reflected light ions, and most of the dissipated magnetic field energy is converted into kinetic energy of these ions, even though their mass is only a small part of the total plasma mass. Such species separation with implications to the momenta and energy partitioning is shown to be of a general nature.     

会切磁场多极离子源中磁场对等离子体特性的影响

本文提出了会切磁场多极离子源中,磁场对等离子体参数以及可引出离子束流和放电室阳极收集的离子电流影响的实验研究结果,并对该结果进行了分析讨论。     

Nondiffusive suprathermal ion transport in simple magnetized toroidal plasmas

We investigate suprathermal ion dynamics in simple magnetized toroidal plasmas in the presence of electrostatic turbulence driven by the ideal interchange instability. Turbulent fields from fluid simulations are used in the nonrelativistic equation of ion motion to compute suprathermal tracer ion trajectories. Suprathermal ion dispersion starts with a brief ballistic phase, during which particles do not interact with the plasma, followed by a turbulence interaction phase. In this one simple system, we observe the entire spectrum of suprathermal ion dynamics, from subdiffusion to superdiffusion, depending on beam energy and turbulence amplitude. We estimate the duration of the ballistic phase and identify basic mechanisms during the interaction phase that determine the dependencies of the character of suprathermal ion dispersion upon the beam energy and turbulence fluctuation amplitude.     

Heating of gadolinium plasma ions by the ion cyclotron resonance method

Resonance rf heating of gadolinium plasma ions is calculated in the configuration when an electric field travels along a permanent magnetic field and simultaneously rotates in the direction normal to the latter. Two model functions are taken as initial ion distribution functions over longitudinal velocities: one is a linear function of the velocity in the low velocity range and the other is a shifted semi-Maxwellian function. The ion transverse velocity distribution function is calculated under the assumption that the initial “transverse” distribution function is Maxwellian with a temperature of 5 eV. Ion fluxes toward collector plates are calculated by integrating the total distribution function over the allowed ranges of longitudinal and transverse velocities and transverse coordinates of the guiding center of the ions before the collector. The calculation is performed as applied to the ¹⁵⁷Gd target isotope and its two nearest neighbors. The effect of the longitudinal temperature on the width of the heating efficiency resonance line and of the longitudinal magnetic field on the ion heating selectivity is studied. Also, the influence of the longitudinal wavenumber of the warming traveling electric field on the selectivity of an ion cyclotron resonance reactor is investigated. The heating efficiency is estimated from the frequency dependence of the fraction of ions heated to an energy above a given value.     

斜磁场作用下的射频等离子体平板鞘层结构

建立一个一维坐标空间、三维速度空间的斜磁场作用下的射频等离子体平板鞘层模型，讨论了磁场对射频鞘层结构及其参数特性的影响.研究结果表明：磁场对鞘层结构有不可忽略的影响，特别是能够使鞘层边界附近的离子速度分布和密度分布产生明显的变化.此外，虽然磁场不能改变离子总的能量密度分布，却能改变离子的运动状态，并同时影响着基板上离子在各个方向上的能量分布和入射偏移角度. 关键词： 射频 鞘层 磁场     

电子-离子碰撞对超热电子影响的PIC模拟计算

超热电子-离子的产生和输运在传统的ICF方案和“快点火”方案中都是很重要的问题.讨论了电子-离子碰撞对参量不稳定性产生超热电子的过程和超热电子输运过程的影响.指出电子-离子弱碰撞项的加入增强了碰撞吸收,提高了热电子温度,降低了静电波破裂时的场能.这些改变了超热电子的总能量和分布,使之更集中于静电波的相速;电子-离子碰撞的存在还增强了自洽电场,阻碍了超热电子的输运,同样也是超热电子能量下降的原因之一.同时,为确保计算结果的可靠,讨论了初条件对PIC模拟计算的影响,指出空间位置随机热启动容易引入非物理因素,对 关键词：     

圆柱形阳极层霍尔等离子体加速器的质点网格方法模拟

对圆柱形阳极层霍尔加速器内的放电等离子体运用二维质点网格方法（particle in cell）进行数值模拟,用蒙特卡罗碰撞方法处理带电粒子与中性粒子之间的碰撞. 得到了放电通道内离子与电子的分布以及离子流的运动,并且对出口外侧的能量分布进行了统计. 结果发现圆柱形阳极层等离子体加速器的磁场对电子有明显的约束作用,电子集中于阳极附近很小的区域内. 由于电磁场的特殊分布,离子流呈现出双峰式的分布. 离子能量范围从放电电压的20%到接近放电电压,平均能量在放电电压的40%—50%之间. 关键词： 质点网格方法 蒙特卡罗碰撞 数值模拟 阳极层霍尔等离子体加速器     

托卡马克中局域磁扰动引起的高能量离子损失研究

基于单粒子导心运动代码ORBIT，采用测试粒子模拟方法，研究了托卡马克等离子体内部不同径向位置处局域磁场扰动对高能量离子的损失的影响。研究表明，在局域磁扰动主要分布在某磁面附近、其环向具有类似纹波场形式下，可造成一些靠近等离子体中心区域的高能量离子损失，但对靠近等离子边界的离子损失影响相对不大。这些损失的高能量离子均为捕获离子，离子的投掷角越大就越容易损失。此外，造成高能量离子最大损失率的局域场径向位置与这些损失离子的初始径向位置通常存在一定的偏移，而且这个偏移与这些离子的能量密切相关。当局域场出现在某些位置时，能量较低的离子会有一定的损失，能量较高的离子反而不会损失。     

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Based on ORBIT code of a guiding center motion of single particle, the loss of energetic ions in different radial positions of tokamak plasma is studied by using test particle simulation method. The results show that the local magnetic perturbations can cause loss of many energetic ions near the central region of the plasma, but they have little effect on the ion loss near the plasma boundary, assuming that the local field is mainly located near a magnetic surface and its toroidal field is similar to the ripple field. These energetic ions are trapped ions, and the greater their pitch angle is, the easier they lose. In addition, the radial position of the local field that causes the maximum loss rate of energetic ions is usually offset from the initial radial position of these loss ions, and this shift is closely related to the energy of these ions. When the local field appears in certain locations, the ions of lower energy have some loss, but the ions higher energy does not lose.     

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在非对称磁镜场微波ECR等离子体中引入了磁电加热系统,研究了电极环大小、轴向位置以及双环加热对离子温度的影响.结果表明,大小合适的电极环能有效提高离子的加热温度,且最优电极环尺寸主要取决于离子回旋半径.电极环轴向位置的选择主要与磁镜场位形有关,将电极环置于磁镜场中部的弱磁场位置时最有利于离子温度的提高.采用双电极环加热能进一步提高离子温度,并且其加热效果是单环加热的两倍.     

Fusion burning waves in degenerate plasmas

The outcome of fusion burning waves in non-degenerate plasmas is limited by the strength of ion–electron Coulomb collisions and subsequent energy loss mechanisms as electron heat conduction and radiation emission. In this Letter, an analysis is presented on the degeneracy effects in the stopping power of suprathermal charged particles and in the energy transmitted from ions to electrons by Coulomb collision. Main results of this analysis is that very powerful fusion burning waves can be launched into previously compressed degenerate plasmas. This can be specially suitable for proton–boron fusion, but it also applicable to any type of fusion reaction, where ignition can be triggered by an incoming ion beam or another external source of energy deposited in a small fraction of the compressed plasma (fast ignition).     

Observations of ion-beam formation in a current-free double layer

With nonperturbative laser-induced fluorescence measurements of ion flow, we confirm numerical simulations of spontaneous electric double-layer (DL) formation in a current-free expanding plasma. Measurements in two different experiments confirm that the DL is localized to the region of rapidly diverging magnetic field. The measurements indicate that the trapped ion population is a single Maxwellian, that the spatial gradient of the energy of ions accelerated through the DL matches the magnetic field gradient, and that DL formation is triggered when the ion-neutral collisional mean-free path exceeds the magnetic field gradient scale length.     

The generation of fast particles in plasmas created by laser pulses with different wavelengths

By means of spatially resolved high-resolution X-ray spectroscopy, we have investigated the generation of fast ions at various laser installations with different flux densities and laser wavelengths. It is demonstrated that the fast ion generation in laser-produced plasma can be achieved for a very low level of the averaged laser intensity on the target. The time-of-flight mass spectrometry ion diagnostics and X-ray spectrographs give very close results for the energy distribution of the thermal ion component. For higher energies, however, we found significant differences: the spatially resolved high-resolution spectrographs expose the presence of suprathermal ions, while the time-of-flight method does not. Suprathermal ion energies E _ion plotted as a function of the qλ² parameter show a large scatter far above the experimental errors. The cause of these large scatters is attributed to a strong nonuniformity of the laser intensity distribution in the focal spot. The analysis by means of hydrodynamics and spectral simulations show that the X-ray emission spectrum is a complex convolution from different parts of the plasma with strongly different electron density and temperature. It is shown that the highly resolved Li-like satellite spectrum near Heαcontains significant distortions even for very low hot electron fractions. Non-Maxwellian spectroscopy allows determination of both the hot electron fraction and the bulk electron temperature.     

Effects of downstream magnetic field collimation on ion behavior inelectron cyclotron resonance microwave plasma

Effects of a magnetic held collimation on ion behavior in the downstream region of an electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) plasma device are clarified experimentally using a directional ion energy analyzer. The drift energy and its spread of the ion beam observed in the downstream region decrease and the beam temperature increases with the collimating magnetic flux density. Then, the ion temperature measured perpendicular to the axis of the plasma stream slightly decreases. The ion beam is found to be almost parallel to the magnetic field lines, that is, the beam tends to be collimated