A probe-based method for measuring the transport coefficient in the tokamak edge region

A new method for measuring the diffusion coefficient in the edge plasma of fusion devices is presented. The method is based on studying the decay of the plasma fluctuation spectrum inside a small ceramic tube having its mouth flush with a magnetic surface and its axis aligned along the radial direction. The plasma fluctuations are detected by an electrode, radially movable inside the tube. In the experiment described herein, which was performed in the edge region of the CASTOR tokamak, the electrode measured the floating potential. The experimental arrangement is the same used for the direct plasma potential measurements according to the “Ball-pen probe” [1], the design of which is based on the Katsumata probe principle. When the electrode protrudes from the tube, the measured signal shows the floating potential fluctuations of the plasma. Retracting the electrode into the tube, the signal power spectrum displays a decay. This decay is different for different frequencies, and is exponential. Assuming a mainly diffusive behaviour of the plasma inside the tube, the spectrum decay length can be used to derive a value of the diffusion coefficient. The measurement were performed at different radial positions in the CASTOR edge region, so that a radial profile of the diffusion coefficient was obtained. Typical values ofD are of (2–3) m²/s, consistent with expectations from the global particle balance. The radial profile shows a tendency of the diffusion coefficient to increase going deeper into the plasma.     

Magnetic Fluctuation Measurement in Sino United Spherical Tokamak Plasma

To investigate the magnetic fluctuations and for further transport study, the poloidal and radial magnetic field t is conducted on the Sino United Spherical Tokamak （SUNIST）. Auto-power spectral density indicares that the magnetic fiuctuation energy mainly concentrates in the frequency region lower than lO kttz. The magnetic field oscillations, which are characterized by harmonic frequencies of 40 kHz, are observed in the scrape- off layer; by contrast, in the plasma core, the magnetic fluctuations are of Gaussian type. The time-frequency profiles show that the poloidal magnetic fluctuations are temporally intermittent. The autocorrelation calculation indicates that the fluctuations in decorrelation time vary between the core and the edge.     

Edge Particle Flux with Temperature Fluctuation in the HL-2A Tokamak

Electron temperature, density, plasma potential and their fluctuation profiles at edge plasmas are measured simultaneously with a reciprocating probe system in HL-2A. The analysis results of four-tip data indicate that the temperature fluctuation has relative amplitude of 10-15%, gives more contribution to particle flux in lower （0- 25 kHz） and higher frequency （50-250 kHz） ranges. The coherence between temperature fluctuations and density or potential fluctuations implies that their coupling will impact anomalous transport. The measured diffusion coefficient is about three times of the Bohm diffusion coefficient when considering the temperature fluctuation. The particle flux with temperature fluctuation is discussed in HL-2A for the first time.     

Truncated Lévy flights and generalized Cauchy processes

A continuous Markovian model for truncated Lévy flights is proposed. It generalizes the approach developed previously by Lubashevsky et al. [Phys. Rev. E 79, 011110 (2009); Phys. Rev. E 80, 031148 (2009), Eur. Phys. J. B 78, 207 (2010)] and allows for nonlinear friction in wandering particle motion as well as saturation of the noise intensity depending on the particle velocity. Both the effects have own reason to be considered and, as shown in the paper, individually give rise to a cutoff in the generated random walks meeting the Lévy type statistics on intermediate scales. The nonlinear Langevin equation governing the particle motion was solved numerically using an order 1.5 strong stochastic Runge-Kutta method. The obtained numerical data were employed to analyze the statistics of the particle displacement during a given time interval, namely, to calculate the geometric mean of this random variable and to construct its distribution function. It is demonstrated that the time dependence of the geometric mean comprises three fragments following one another as the time scale increases that can be categorized as the ballistic regime, the Lévy type regime (superballistic, quasiballistic, or superdiffusive one), and the standard motion of Brownian particles. For the intermediate Lévy type part the distribution of the particle displacement is found to be of the generalized Cauchy form with cutoff. Besides, the properties of the random walks at hand are shown to be determined mainly by a certain ratio of the friction coefficient and the noise intensity rather than their characteristics individually.     

Modelling of Lévy walk kinetics of charged particles in edge electrostatic turbulence in tokamaks

We model and discuss the possible types of motion that charged particles may undergo in a stationary and spatially periodic electrostatic potential and a homogeneous magnetic field. The model is considered to be the simplest approximation of more complex phenomena of plasma edge turbulence in tokamaks. Therein, low frequency turbulence appears in the plasma edge, resulting in a fluctuation of the electron density, and also in the generation of a turbulent electrostatic field. Typical parameters of this turbulent electrostatic field are an electrical potential amplitude of 10–100 V and wave numbers k≈10³ m^-1. In our model, we consider these regimes, together with a homogeneous magnetic field with a magnitude of 1 T. We investigate the dynamics of singly-ionized carbon ions – a typical plasma impurity – with kinetic energies on the order of 10 eV. Besides the obvious Larmor and drift motions, a motion of random-walk and of Lévy walk character appear therein. All of these types of motion can play an important role in the modelling of the anomalous diffusion of particles from the plasma edge turbulence region. The dynamics mentioned will cause an inevitable escape of energetic particles and thus of power loss from the thermonuclear reactor. Moreover, Lévy walk kinetics represents a very interesting kind of kinetics, currently of great interest, which was previously not so often discussed.     

Lévy Walk with Multiple Internal States

Lévy walk with multiple internal states can effectively model the motion of particles that don’t immediately move back to the directions or areas which they come from. When the Lévy walk behaves superdiffusion, it is discovered that the non-immediately-repeating property, characterized by the constructed transition matrix, has no influence on the particle’s mean square displacement (MSD) or Pearson coefficient. This is a kind of stable property of Lévy walk. However, if the Lévy walk shows the dynamical behaviors of normal diffusion, then the effect of non-immediately-repeating emerges. For the Lévy walk with some particular transition matrices, it may display nonsymmetric dynamics; in these cases, the behaviors of their variances are detailedly discussed, especially some comparisons with the ones of the continuous time random walks are made (a striking difference is the changes of the exponents of the variances). The first passage time distribution and its average of Lévy walks are simulated, the results of which turn out that the first passage time can distinguish Lévy walks with different transition matrices, while the MSD can not.

     

Drift in a random walk along self-similar clusters

This paper is a study of the relationship between diffusion and conductivity when the random walks of particles occur via Lévy hops. It shows that because of the unusual nature of Lévy hops the particle mobility is a nonlinear function of the electric field in arbitrarily weak fields. The crossover to ordinary diffusion by introduction of a finite displacement in each step is also discussed. Zh. éksp. Teor. Fiz. 115, 1016–1023 (March 1999)     

Influence of the finiteness of particle velocity on the energy spectrum of cosmic rays in an anomalous diffusion model with Lévy flights

An estimate of the influence the finiteness of particle velocity has on the results of a fractional differential (anomalous) model of cosmic ray propagation in the Galaxy with Lévy flights developed by the authors is considered. The results from Monte Carlo simulations of particle diffusion in random walk models with finite and infinite velocities are presented. It is shown that considering particle velocity finiteness has almost no effect on the cosmic ray energy spectrum obtained for E > 1 GeV in the anomalous diffusion model with Lévy flights for nearby young sources.     

On the relation between conduction and diffusion in a random walk along self-similar clusters

The relation between diffusion and conduction in the random walk of a particle by means of Lévy hops is investigated. It is shown that on account of the unusual character of Lévy hops, the mobility of a particle is a nonlinear function of the electric field for arbitrarily weak fields. Pis’ma Zh. éksp. Teor. Fiz. 67, No. 7, 518–520 (10 April 1998)     

The hierarchy of exit times of Lévy-driven Langevin equations

In this paper we consider the first exit problem of an overdamped Lévy driven particle in a confining potential. We survey results obtained in recent years from our work on the Kramers’ times for dynamical systems of this type with Lévy perturbations containing heavy, and exponentially light jumps, and compare them to the well known case of dynamical systems with Gaussian perturbations. It turns out that exits induced by Lévy processes with jumps are always essentially faster than Gaussian exits.     

Study of density and potential fluctuations in the TEXT tokamakwith a heavy ion beam probe

A heavy ion beam probe was used to study the characteristics of density and potential fluctuations in the TEXT tokamak. Fluctuations of density and space potential are nearly Boltzmann like, n˜/n~φ˜/kT_e, near the edge of the plasma (0.80.9). The turbulent E&oarr;×B&oarr; radial particle flux is sufficient to account for all of the particle loss from the tokamak. No poloidal asymmetries, within a poloidal angle range of about 70°, are observed in the fluctuation levels. The fluctuation spectral shape, the density potential phase angle, and the fluctuation propagation speed show a strong radial dependence     

Time characteristics of Lévy flights in a steep potential well

Using the method previously developed for ordinary Brownian diffusion, we derive a new formula to calculate the correlation time of stationary Lévy flights in a steep potential well. For the symmetric quartic potential, we obtain the exact expression of the correlation time of steady-state Lévy flights with index α = 1. The correlation time of stationary Lévy flights decreases with an increasing noise intensity and steepness of potential well.     

Correlated Lvy flight in external force fields

The correlated Lvy flight is studied analytically in terms of the fractional Fokker-Planck equation and simulated numerically by using the Langevin equation,where the usual white Lvy noise is generalized to an Ornstein-Uhlenbeck Lvy process(OULP)with a correlation timeτc.We analyze firstly the stable behavior of OULP.The probability density function of Lvy flight particle driven by the OULP in a harmonic potential is exactly obtained,which is also a Lvy-type one withτc-dependence width;when the particle is bounded by a quartic potential,its stationary distribution has a bimodality shape and becomes noticeable with the increase of τc.     

Theoretical Computation for Non-Equilibrium Air Plasma Electrical Conductivity at Atmospheric Pressure

Based on the Chapman-Enskog theory, we calculate the electrical conductivity of non-equilibrium air plasma in the two-temperature model. We consider different degrees of non-equilibrium, which is defined by the ratio of electronic temperature to heavy particles temperature. The method of computing the composition of air plasma is demonstrated. After calculating the electrical conductivity from electron temperature 1000 K to 15000K, the present result is compared with Murphy＇s study [Plasma Chem. Plasma Process 15 （1994） 279] for equilibrium case. All the calculation is completed at atmospheric pressure. The present results may have potential applications in numerical calculation of non-equilibrium air plasma.     

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通过中平面活动10探针组、往复快速扫描4探针和低杂波天线口的固定4探针测量了主等离子体边缘的温度、密度、悬浮电位、径向和极向电场、雷诺协强、径向和极向等离子体流速及其径向分布。用偏滤器靶板上的14组嵌入式静电3探针阵列测量了同一环向截面的内外中性化板上的电子温度、密度、悬浮电位及其分布。比较了在孔栏位形和偏滤器位形下边缘等离子体特性的差异,特别是两种位形下边缘温度和密度衰减长度的变化。分析了在多脉冲超声分子束加料和低杂波注入条件下的边界等离子体特性,以及雷诺协强的径向梯度与极向流和径向电场梯度与湍流损失的相互关系。     

Diffusion Monte Carlo analysis of the crossover from three to two dimensions for trapped Bose gases

We investigate the crossover from three to two dimensions for harmonically trapped hard-sphere Bose gases by varying the aspect ratio of the trapping potential. The diffusion Monte Carlo method is used to calculate both the ground-state energy and structural properties. The effect of trap anisotropy, interparticle interaction, and number of particles on the ground-state properties is discussed. Our results show that the minimum value of the aspect ratio at which the system reaches an asymptotic equilibrium distribution in the weakly confined direction decreases with increasing scattering length, while the minimum value of the aspect ratio at which the system enters the quasi-two-dimensional (2D) regime increases as both the scattering length and the number of particles increase. Additionally, the role played by particle correlations is proved to be more pronounced in the quasi-2D system than in the three-dimensional (3D) system by directly comparing the ground-state properties for the two cases.     

About bursty behaviour, coherent structures, wide scrape-off layer and large parallel flows in the edge of the Tore Supra tokamak

We present the measurements of plasma characteristics in the scrape-off layer (SOL) of the Tore Supra tokamak performed by means of reciprocating Langmuir probe. The probe is inserted into the machine from top. As the radial distance from last closed flux surface (LCFS) increases, ion saturation current exhibits stronger bursty character and its probability density function becomes increasingly skewed towards positive values. At the same time, burst duration and inter-burst time increase dramatically. We explain this phenomenon by radial propagation and dynamics of the ensemble of coherent turbulent structures of different size. The results of two-dimensional fluid modelling based of flux-driven interchange instability mechanism are in excellent agreement with experimental results. We obtained clear experimental evidence that most of the coherent structures are formed in poloidally localized region of the SOL around the outboard midplane. If the probe is magnetically connected to this region, the SOL is very wide and we detect bursty behaviour in the far SOL. On the other hand, if the probe is not magnetically connected to the outboard midplane region (magnetic field lines are intercepted by the outboard limiter), then the SOL is very thin and bursty behaviour is much less prominent. Detection of bursty behaviour in the far SOL is correlated with existence of wide SOL pointing on important role of bursty transport by means of coherent turbulent structures in establishing the width of the SOL in tokamaks. The measurements of parallel flow in the SOL shows that plasma particle radial flux coming from confinement region to the SOL is mostly poloidally localized around the outboard midplane. Our estimations show that more than 80% of plasma particle radial flux is coming from confinement region to the SOL in poloidally localized region — approximately ±15° — around the outboard midplane. Presented at the Workshop “Electric Fields, Structures and Relaxation in Edge Plasmas”, Roma, Italy, June 26–27, 2006.     

Knudsen Gas in a Finite Random Tube: Transport Diffusion and First Passage Properties

We consider transport diffusion in a stochastic billiard in a random tube which is elongated in the direction of the first coordinate (the tube axis). Inside the random tube, which is stationary and ergodic, non-interacting particles move straight with constant speed. Upon hitting the tube walls, they are reflected randomly, according to the cosine law: the density of the outgoing direction is proportional to the cosine of the angle between this direction and the normal vector. Steady state transport is studied by introducing an open tube segment as follows: We cut out a large finite segment of the tube with segment boundaries perpendicular to the tube axis. Particles which leave this piece through the segment boundaries disappear from the system. Through stationary injection of particles at one boundary of the segment a steady state with non-vanishing stationary particle current is maintained. We prove (i) that in the thermodynamic limit of an infinite open piece the coarse-grained density profile inside the segment is linear, and (ii) that the transport diffusion coefficient obtained from the ratio of stationary current and effective boundary density gradient equals the diffusion coefficient of a tagged particle in an infinite tube. Thus we prove Fick’s law and equality of transport diffusion and self-diffusion coefficients for quite generic rough (random) tubes. We also study some properties of the crossing time and compute the Milne extrapolation length in dependence on the shape of the random tube.     

Influence of radial electric field on trajectories of plug potential bounce ion in the tandem mirror

Bouncing ions between the plug potentials play an important role in improvement of the axial confinement in the tandem mirror. We examined the influence of the radial electric field on the trajectories of the ions passed through the anchor cell with nonaxisymmetric magnetic configuration on the assumption that the shape of the magnetic flux tube was shifted from the shape of the equipotential surface of the plasma at the mirror throats of the anchor cells. The discrepancy between the shapes enhanced the radial drift of the bounce ion. Radial potential profile of the core plasma was controlled by adjustment of the radially separated endplate potentials, and it was found that the flattened radial potential profile was effective for the decrease of the radial drift. Presented at 5th Workshop “Role of Electric Fields in Plasma Confinement and Exhaust”, Montreux, Switzerland, June 23–24, 2002.