Nonlinear dispersion relation of geodesic acoustic modes

The energy input and frequency shift of geodesic acoustic modes (GAMs) due to turbulence in tokamak edge plasmas are investigated in numerical two-fluid turbulence studies. Surprisingly, the turbulent GAM dispersion relation is qualitatively equivalent to the linear GAM dispersion but can have drastically enhanced group velocities. In up-down asymmetric geometry the energy input due to turbulent transport may favor the excitation of GAMs with one particular sign of the radial phase velocity relative to the magnetic drifts and may lead to pulsed GAM activity.     

Geodesic acoustic mode induced by toroidal rotation in tokamaks

The effect of toroidal rotation on the geodesic acoustic mode (GAM) in a tokamak is studied. It is shown that, in addition to a small frequency upshift of the ordinary GAM, another GAM, with much lower frequency, is induced by the rotation. The new GAM appears as a consequence of the nonuniform plasma density and pressure created by the centrifugal force on the magnetic surfaces. Both GAMs in a rotating plasma are shown to exist both as continuum modes with finite mode numbers m and n at the rational surfaces q=m/n as well as in the form of axisymmetric modes with m=n=0.     

Toroidal symmetry of the geodesic acoustic mode zonal flow in a tokamak plasma

The toroidal symmetry of the geodesic acoustic mode (GAM) zonal flows is identified with toroidally distributed three step Langmuir probes at the edge of the HuanLiuqi-2A (commonly referred to as HL-2A) tokamak plasmas for the first time. High coherence of both the GAM and the ambient turbulence for the toroidally displaced measurements along a magnetic field line is observed, in contrast with the high coherence of the GAM but low coherence of the ambient turbulence when the toroidally displaced measurements are not along the same field line. The radial and poloidal features of the flows are also simultaneously determined. The nonlinear three wave coupling between the high frequency turbulent fluctuations and the flows is demonstrated to be a plausible formation mechanism of the flows.     

Mean and oscillating plasma flows and turbulence interactions across the L-H confinement transition

A complex interaction between turbulence driven E × B zonal flow oscillations, i.e., geodesic acoustic modes (GAMs), the turbulence, and mean equilibrium flows is observed during the low to high (L-H) plasma confinement mode transition in the ASDEX Upgrade tokamak. Below the L-H threshold at low densities a limit-cycle oscillation forms with competition between the turbulence level and the GAM flow shearing. At higher densities the cycle is diminished, while in the H mode the cycle duration becomes too short to sustain the GAM, which is replaced by large amplitude broadband flow perturbations. Initially GAM amplitude increases as the H-mode transition is approached, but is then suppressed in the H mode by enhanced mean flow shear.     

Intermittent transport associated with the geodesic acoustic mode near the critical gradient regime

Turbulent transport near the critical gradient in toroidal plasmas is studied based on global Landau-fluid simulations and an extended predator-prey theoretical model of ion temperature gradient turbulence. A new type of intermittent transport associated with the emission and propagation of a geodesic acoustic mode (GAM) is found near the critical gradient regime, which is referred to as GAM intermittency. The intermittency is characterized by new time scales of trigger, damping, and recursion due to GAM damping. During the recursion of intermittent bursts, stationary zonal flow increases with a slow time scale due to the accumulation of undamped residues and eventually quenches the turbulence, suggesting that a nonlinear upshift of the critical gradient, i.e., Dimits shift, is established through such a dynamical process.     

Cooling and transport of energetic ions due to the global geodesic acoustic mode

It is shown that (i) the destabilization of global Geodesic Acoustic modes (GAM or E-GAM) by passing energetic ions in tokamaks can be accompanied with a considerable energy transfer from these ions to the mode; (ii) the mode-induced slowing down of the energetic ions leads to a radial shift outwards/inwards of the ions moving in the direction counter to/of the plasma current, in spite of the fact that the canonical angular momentum of the particles is conserved during GAMs. Some practical consequences of these phenomena are discussed.     

Geodesic mode instability driven by the electron current in tokamak plasmas

Effect of the parallel electron current on Geodesic Acoustic Modes (GAM) in a tokamak is analyzed by kinetic theory taking into the account the ion Landau damping and diamagnetic drifts. It is shown that the electron current modeled by shifted Maxwell distribution may overcome the phase velocity threshold and ion Landau damping thus resulting in the GAM instability when the parallel electron current velocity is larger than the effective parallel GAM phase velocity Rqω. The instability occurs due to its cross term of the current with the ion diamagnetic drift. Possible applications to tokamak experiments are discussed.     

Collisionless Damping of Geodesic Acoustic Mode in a Multi‐Ion Plasma with Superthermal Ions

The dispersion relation of geodesic acoustic mode is investigated in a multi‐ion toroidal plasma on the basis of linear gyrokinetic equations where ions are assumed to take a nonextensive distribution. It is found that the frequency of GAM becomes larger with the decrease of q. Consequently, GAM will damp more rapidly. The effective charge corresponding to the maximum damping rate is found to move towards unity as q decreases. As indicates that in a plasma with superthermal bulk ions, the influence of the impurity ion on the damping rate is weakened. (© 2015 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

A nonlinear wave coupling algorithm and its programing and application in plasma turbulences

The fully developed turbulence can be regarded as a nonlinear system, with wave coupling inside, which causes the nonlinear energy to transfer, and drives the turbulence to develop further or be suppressed. Spectral analysis is one of the most effective methods to study turbulence system. In order to apply it to the study of the nonlinear wave coupling process of edge plasma turbulence, an efficient algorithm based on spectral analysis technology is proposed to solve the nonlinear wave coupling equation. The algorithm is based on a mandatory temporal static condition with the nonideal spectra separated from the ideal spectra. The realization idea and programing flow are given. According to the characteristics of plasma turbulence, the simulation data are constructed and used to verify the algorithm and its implementation program. The simulation results and experimental results show the accuracy of the algorithm and the corresponding program, which can play a great role in the studying the energy transfer in edge plasma turbulences. As an application, the energy cascade analysis of typical edge plasma turbulence is carried out by using the results of a case calculation. Consequently, a physical picture of the energy transfer in a kind of fully developed turbulence is constructed, which confirms that the energy transfer in this turbulent system develops from lower-frequency region to higher-frequency region and from linear growing wave to damping wave.     

Verification of Energetic-Particle-Induced Geodesic Acoustic Mode in Gyrokinetic Particle Simulations

The energetic-particle-induced geodesic acoustic mode(EGAM) is studied using gyrokinetic particle simulations in tokamak plasmas.In our simulations,exponentially growing EGAMs are excited by energetic particles with a slowing-down distribution.The frequencies of EGAMs are always below the frequencies of GAMs,which is due to the non-perturbative contribution of energetic particles(EPs).The mode structures of EGAMs are similar to the corresponding mode structures of GAMs.Our gyrokinetic simulations show that a high EP density can enhance the EGAM growth rate,due to high EP free energy,and that EPs' temperature and the pitch angle of the distribution modify the EGAM frequency/growth rate by means of the resonance condition.Kinetic effects of the thermal electrons barely change the EGAM frequency,and have a weak damping effect on the EGAM.Benchmarks between the gyrokinetic particle simulations and a local EGAM dispersion relation exhibit good agreement in terms of EGAM frequency and growth rate.     

Cause of sudden magnetic reconnection in a laboratory plasma

The cause for sudden reconnection in reversed field pinch plasmas is determined experimentally for two cases: large reconnection events (the sawtooth crash) and small reconnection events during improved confinement. We measure the term in the MHD equations which represents the driving (or damping) of edge tearing modes due to the axisymmetric magnetic field. The term is negative for large reconnection events (the modes are stable, implying that reconnection may be driven by nonlinear coupling to other modes) and positive for small reconnection events (modes are unstable, reconnection is spontaneous).     

Geodesic mode spectrum modified by the energetic particles in tokamak plasmas

Effect of a minor concentration of the energetic particles on GAM spectrum in a tokamak is analyzed by drift kinetic theory taking into the account the electron current and diamagnetic drift. A novel method of Jacobi functions is applied to solve the drift kinetic equation for the energetic bounce particles in the limit of high bounce frequency in comparison with the GAM frequency. Using the Q-asymptotic of Jacobi function, it is shown that the energetic minority ions can form the continuum minimum/maximum at the NB or ICR power deposition maximum where the geodesic eigenmode may be excited. In this case, the electron current modeled by shifted Maxwell distribution overcomes the ion Landau damping threshold thus resulting in the GAM instability.     

Influence of Generalized (r, q) Distribution Function on Electrostatic Waves

Non-Maxwellian particle distribution functions possessing high energy tail and shoulder in the profile of distribution function considerably change the damping characteristics of the waves. In the present paper Landau damping of electron plasma (Langmuir) waves and ion-acoustic waves in a hot, isotropic, unmagnetized plasma is studied with the generalized (r,q) distribution function. The results show that for the Langmuir oscillations Landau damping becomes severe as the spectral index r or q reduces. However, for the ion-acoustic waves Landau damping is more sensitive to the ion temperature than the spectral indices.     

Nonlinear Energy Cascading in Turbulence during the Internal Reconnection Event at the Sino-United Spherical Tokamak

The characteristics of the energy transfer and nonlinear coupling among edge electromagnetic turbulence in thermal quench sub-period of the internal reconnection event(IRE) are studied at the sino-united spherical tokamak device using multiple Langmuir and magnetic probe arrays. The wavelet bispectral analysis and the modified Kim method are applied to investigate linear growth/damping and nonlinear energy transfer rates, along with multi-field turbulence interactions. The results show a multi-field nonlinear energy transfer from electrostatic to magnetic turbulence that results in two-mode coupling in magnetic turbulence, which may play a crucial role to trigger the IRE.     

Predictions and observations of low-shear beta-induced shear Alfvén–acoustic eigenmodes in toroidal plasmas

New global MHD eigenmode solutions arising in gaps in the low frequency Alfvén–acoustic continuum below the geodesic acoustic mode (GAM) frequency have been found numerically and have been used to explain relatively low frequency experimental signals seen in NSTX and JET tokamaks. These global eigenmodes, referred to here as Beta-induced Alfvén–Acoustic Eigenmodes (BAAE), exist in the low magnetic safety factor region near the extrema of the Alfvén–acoustic continuum. In accordance to the linear dispersion relations, the frequency of these modes shifts as the safety factor, q  , decreases. We show that BAAEs can be responsible for observations in JET plasmas at relatively low beta <2%$<2\mathrm{\%}$ as well as in NSTX plasmas at relatively high-beta >20%$>20\mathrm{\%}$. In contrast to the mostly electrostatic character of GAMs the new global modes also contain an electromagnetic (magnetic field line bending) component due to the Alfvén coupling, leading to wave phase velocities along the field line that are large compared to the sonic speed. Qualitative agreement between theoretical predictions and observations are found.     

Estimating the nonlinear resonant frequency of a single pile in nonlinear soil

Analytical expressions are determined for the nonlinear resonant frequency (or natural frequency) of the fundamental lateral mode of a pile. A pile with a floating toe, with and without pile cap is considered in this paper. The influence of a nonlinear soil spring model that varies with depth and a nonlinear damping model that is strain amplitude dependent is considered. A non-dimensional equation of motion for the system dynamics is derived from an energy based formulation. This equation is a Duffing's type nonlinear differential system that has nonlinear damping. Harmonic balance with numerical continuation is employed to determine the nonlinear resonance curves of the system. Comparison with some experimental results is made.     

Moving and Interaction of Compact-like Pulses in Klein-Gordon Lattice System

We study the moving and interaction of the compact-like pulses in the system of an anharmonic lattice with a double well on-site potential by a direct algebraic method and numerical experiments. It is found that the localization of the compact-like pulse is related to the nonlinear coupling parameter Cnl and the potential barrier height V0 of the double well potential. The velocity of the moving compact-like pulse is determined by the linear coupling parameter Cl, the localization parameter q (the nonlinear coupling parameter Cnl) and the potential barrier height Vo.Numerical experiments demonstrate that appropriate Cl is not detrimental to a stable moving of the compact-like pulse.However, the head on interaction of two compact-like pulses in the lattice system with comparatively small Cl leads to the appearance of a discrete stationary localized mode and small amplitude nonlinear oscillation background, while moderate Cl results in the emergence of two moving deformed pulses with damping amplitude and decay velocity and radiating oscillations, and biggish Cl brings on the appearing of four deformed kinks with radiating oscillations and different moving velocities.     

Correlation measurements on regular and irregular ionization waves in neon

The evolution from regular to fully irregular motion of the s variety of an ionization wave in neon is studied by space correlation measurements. The correlation functions clearly indicate the onset of strongly nonlinear interaction (by a change in the decay constant of correlation function) in the region of coherent wave motion, the transition to irregular wave motion (short distance correlation only) and the stochastic character of fully developed irregular wave motion (correlation only over a few wavelengths and a few periods).     

A damping mechanics model and a beam finite element for the free-vibration of laminated composite strips under in-plane loading

A theoretical framework is presented for predicting the nonlinear damping and damped vibration of laminated composite strips due to large in-plane forces. Nonlinear Green-Lagrange axial strains are introduced in the governing equations of a viscoelastic composite and new nonlinear damping and stiffness matrices are formulated including initial stress effects. Building upon the nonlinear laminate mechanics, a damped beam finite element is developed. Finite element stiffness and damping matrices are synthesized and the static equilibrium is predicted using a Newton-Raphson solver. The corresponding linearized damped free-vibration response is predicted and modal frequencies and damping of the in-plane deflected strip are calculated. Numerical results quantify the nonlinear effect of in-plane loads on structural modal damping of various laminated composite strips. The modal loss-factors and natural frequencies of cross-ply Glass/Epoxy beams subject to in-plane loading are measured and correlated with numerical results.     

Dynamic response of one-dimensional interacting fermions

We evaluate the dynamic structure factor S(q, omega) of interacting one-dimensional spinless fermions with a nonlinear dispersion relation. The combined effect of the nonlinear dispersion and of the interactions leads to new universal features of S(q, omega). The sharp peak S(q, omega) approximately q(delta(omega -uq), characteristic for the Tomonaga-Luttinger model, broadens up; for a fixed becomes finite at arbitrarily large . The main spectral weight, however, is confined to a narrow frequency interval of the width deltaomega approximately q(2)/m. At the boundaries of this interval the structure factor exhibits power-law singularities with exponents depending on the interaction strength and on the wave number q.