Parallel filtering in global gyrokinetic simulations

In this work, a Fourier solver [B.F. McMillan, S. Jolliet, A. Bottino, P. Angelino, T.M. Tran, L. Villard, Comp. Phys. Commun. 181 (2010) 715] is implemented in the global Eulerian gyrokinetic code GT5D [Y. Idomura, H. Urano, N. Aiba, S. Tokuda, Nucl. Fusion 49 (2009) 065029] and in the global Particle-In-Cell code ORB5 [S. Jolliet, A. Bottino, P. Angelino, R. Hatzky, T.M. Tran, B.F. McMillan, O. Sauter, K. Appert, Y. Idomura, L. Villard, Comp. Phys. Commun. 177 (2007) 409] in order to reduce the memory of the matrix associated with the field equation. This scheme is verified with linear and nonlinear simulations of turbulence. It is demonstrated that the straight-field-line angle is the coordinate that optimizes the Fourier solver, that both linear and nonlinear turbulent states are unaffected by the parallel filtering, and that the k_∥ spectrum is independent of plasma size at fixed normalized poloidal wave number.     

Magnetic stochasticity in gyrokinetic simulations of plasma microturbulence

Analysis of the magnetic field structure from electromagnetic simulations of tokamak ion temperature gradient turbulence demonstrates that the magnetic field can be stochastic even at very low plasma pressure. The degree of magnetic stochasticity is quantified by evaluating the magnetic diffusion coefficient. We find that the magnetic stochasticity fails to produce a dramatic increase in the electron heat conductivity because the magnetic diffusion coefficient remains small.     

Unlike-particle collision operator for gyrokinetic particle simulations

Plasmas in modern tokamak experiments contain a significant fraction of impurity ion species in addition to main deuterium background. A new unlike-particle collision operator for δf particle simulation has been developed to self-consistently study the non-local effects of impurities on neoclassical transport in toroidal plasmas. A new algorithm for simulation of cross-collisions between different ion species includes test-particle and conserving field-particle operators. The field-particle operator is designed to enforce conservation of number, momentum and energy. It was shown that the new operator correctly simulates the thermal equilibration of different plasma components. It was verified that the ambipolar radial electric field reaches steady state when the total radial guiding center particle current vanishes.     

Particle pinch in gyrokinetic simulations of closed field-line systems

Gyrokinetic simulations of small-scale turbulent transport in a closed magnetic field-line plasma geometry are presented. The simulations are potentially applicable to dipolar systems such as the levitated dipole experiment (LDX) [J. Kesner, Plasma Phys. Rep. 23, 742 (1997).] and planetary magnetospheres, as well as simpler systems such as the Z pinch. We report here for the first time the existence of a robust particle (and weaker temperature) pinch regime, in which the particles are transported up the density gradient. The particle pinch is driven by non-MHD entropy-mode turbulence at k(⊥) ρ(i) ～ 1 and particle pinch appears at larger η ≡ L(n)/L(T) ? 0.7, consistent with quasilinear theory. Our results suggest that entropy-mode transport will drive the LDX plasma profiles toward a state with η ～ 0.7 and pressure gradients that are near marginal ideal MHD interchange-mode stability.     

高能量粒子测地声模与Dimits区漂移波相互作用

基于包含驱动和阻尼的三波非线性相互作用模型,构建了一个描述高能量粒子测地声模(EGAM)与Dimits区漂移波湍流相互作用的系统,并在系统的线性增长及非线性振荡阶段分别进行了解析和数值研究.更进一步的数值结果表明,在忽略EGAM的贡献时,该系统具有随着线性驱动/阻尼率等参数的变化,从极限环振荡经历倍周期分岔最终进入混沌的行为特征.在此基础上,形式上构建了本系统的非线性饱和Dimits区,并研究了EGAM对Dimits区漂移波的影响.结果表明,对于不同幅度和频率的EGAM,被调制后的漂移波将表现出受到激发或抑制的效果.对此,采用相空间分析的方法给出了相应的解释.     

Collisional gyrokinetic full-f particle-in-cell simulations on open field lines with PICLS

Applying gyrokinetic simulations in theoretical turbulence and transport studies for the plasma edge and scrape-off layer (SOL) presents significant challenges. To particularly account for steep density and temperature gradients in the SOL, the “full-f” code PICLS was developed. PICLS is a gyrokinetic particle-in-cell (PIC) code, is based on an electrostatic model with a linearized field equation, and uses kinetic electrons. In previously published results, we applied PICLS to the well-studied 1D parallel transport problem during an edge-localized mode (ELM) in the SOL without collisions. As an extension to this collision-less case and in preparation for 3D simulations, in this work, a collisional model will be introduced. The implemented Lenard–Bernstein collision operator and its Langevin discretization will be shown. Conservation properties of the collision operator, as well as a comparison of the collisional and non-collisional case, will be discussed.     

Nonlinear gyrokinetic simulations of ion-temperature-gradient turbulence for the optimized Wendelstein 7-X stellarator

Ion-temperature-gradient turbulence constitutes a possibly dominant transport mechanism for optimized stellarators, in view of the effective suppression of neoclassical losses characterizing these devices. Nonlinear gyrokinetic simulation results for the Wendelstein 7-X stellarator [G. Grieger, in (IAEA, Vienna, 1991) Vol. 3, p. 525]-assuming an adiabatic electron response-are presented. Several fundamental features are discussed, including the role of zonal flows for turbulence saturation, the resulting flux-gradient relationship, and the coexistence of ion-temperature-gradient modes with trapped ion modes in the saturated state.     

Numerical simulations of graphene conductivity with realistic inter-electron potential

This paper provides results of numerical simulations of graphene conductivity. The numerical results were performed in tight-biding model with Coulomb potential screened by σ electron of carbon atoms. The dependence of the graphene conductivity on the dielectric permittivity of substrate was calculated. The results agreeds with experimental data.     

Electromagnetic gyrokinetic δf particle-in-cell turbulence simulation with realistic equilibrium profiles and geometry

The δf particle-in-cell method for gyrokinetic simulations with kinetic electrons and electromagnetic perturbations [Y. Chen, S. Parker, J. Comput. Phys. 189 (2003) 463] is extended to include arbitrary toroidal equilibrium profiles and flux-surface shapes. The domain is an arbitrarily sized toroidal slice with periodicity assumed in toroidal direction. It is global radially and poloidally along the magnetic field. The differential operators and Jacobians are represented numerically which is a quite general approach with wide applicability. Discretization of the field equations is described. The issue of domain decomposition and particle load balancing is addressed. A derivation of the split-weight scheme is given, and numerical observations are given as to what algorithmic change leads to stable algorithm. It is shown that in the final split-weight algorithm the equation for the rate of change of the electric potential is solved in a way that is incompatible with the quasi-neutrality condition on the grid scale. This incompatibility, while negligible on the scale of interest, leads to better numerical stability on the grid scale. Some examples of linear simulations are presented to show the effects of flux-surface shaping on the linear mode growth rates. The issue of long-term weight growth in δf simulation and the effect of discrete particle noise are briefly discussed.     

Gauge-free electromagnetic gyrokinetic theory

A new gauge-free electromagnetic gyrokinetic theory is developed, in which the gyrocenter equations of motion and the gyrocenter phase-space transformation are expressed in terms of the perturbed electromagnetic fields, instead of the usual perturbed potentials. Gyrocenter polarization and magnetization are derived explicitly from the gyrocenter Hamiltonian, up to first order in the gyrocenter perturbation expansion. Expressions for the sources in Maxwell's equations are derived in a form that is suitable for simulation studies, as well as kinetic-gyrokinetic hybrid modeling.     

The gyrokinetic water-bag modeling in toroidal geometry

The present paper addresses the gyrokinetic water-bag model in toroidal geometry. The previous works were focused on the water-bag concept in magnetized cylindrical plasmas. Here we report on the possibility to improve the water-bag model by taking into account the curvature and gradient drifts. After a presentation of the model, a local linear analysis with some approximations is performed. Interchange and ion temperature gradient instabilities are examined with this new gyro-water-bag model in order to show its ability and its theoretical interest in describing kinetic instabilities in toroidal geometry.     

Free energy cascade in gyrokinetic turbulence

In gyrokinetic theory, the quadratic nonlinearity is known to play an important role in the dynamics by redistributing (in a conservative fashion) the free energy between the various active scales. In the present study, the free energy transfer is analyzed for the case of ion temperature gradient driven turbulence. It is shown that it shares many properties with the energy transfer in fluid turbulence. In particular, one finds a (strongly) local, forward (from large to small scales) cascade of free energy in the plane perpendicular to the background magnetic field. These findings shed light on some fundamental properties of plasma turbulence, and encourage the development of large-eddy-simulation techniques for gyrokinetics.     

Using GPU parallelization to perform realistic simulations of the LPCTrap experiments

We performed classical molecular dynamics (MD) simulations in order to search the conditions for efficient sympathetic cooling of highly charged ions (HCIs) in a linear Paul trap. Small two-component ion Coulomb crystals consisting of laser-cooled ions and HCIs were characterized by the results of the MD simulations. We found that the spatial distribution is determined by not only the charge-to-mass ratio but also the space charge effect. Moreover, the simulation results suggest that the temperature of HCIs do not necessarily decrease with increasing the number of laser-cooled ions in the cases of linear ion crystals. We also determined the cooling limit of sympathetically cooled ¹⁶⁵Ho¹⁴⁺ ions in small linear ion Coulomb crystals. The present results show that sub-milli-Kelvin temperatures of at least 10 Ho¹⁴⁺ ions will be achieved by sympathetic cooling with a single laser-cooled Be⁺.     

Virtual experiments: Combining realistic neutron scattering instrument and sample simulations

A new sample component is presented for the Monte Carlo, ray-tracing program, McStas, which is widely used to simulate neutron scattering instruments. The new component allows the sample to be described by its material dynamic structure factor, which is separated into coherent and incoherent contributions. The effects of absorption and multiple scattering are treated and results from simulations and previous experiments are compared.     

System size effects on gyrokinetic turbulence

The scaling of turbulence-driven heat transport with system size in magnetically confined plasmas is reexamined using first-principles based numerical simulations. Two very different numerical methods are applied to this problem, in order to resolve a long-standing quantitative disagreement, which may have arisen due to inconsistencies in the geometrical approximation. System size effects are further explored by modifying the width of the strong gradient region at fixed system size. The finite width of the strong gradient region in gyroradius units, rather than the finite overall system size, is found to induce the diffusivity reduction seen in global gyrokinetic simulations.     

Calculations of impact broadening and shift of spectral lines for realistic interatomic potentials

We have studied theoretically the impact broadening and shift of the resonance doublets of Rb and Cs for the interatomic potential data of Baylis and Pascale, which were determined from ab initio calculations. We show that, without introducing any adjustable parameter, we obtain good agreement between theoretical and experimental values for both the P_1/2 and the P_3/2 component. In the latter case, the theoretical results are significantly modified when anisotropy of the interaction potential is taken into account.     

Dynamical simulations on the two-dimensional XY model with random-phase shift

Using resistively-shunted-junction dynamics, we numerically investigate the two-dimensional XY model with random phase shift. The critical temperatures and critical exponents are determined by dynamic scaling analysis. For weak disorder strengths, the system undergoes a Kosterlitz-Thouless (KT). A non-KT type phase transition is also observed for strong disorders. A genuine continuous depinning transition at zero temperature and creep motion at low temperature are also studied for various disorder strengths. The relevant critical currents and critical exponents are evaluated, and a non-Arrhenius creep motion is observed in the low temperature phases.