JET: Preparing the future in fusion

JET (Joint European Torus) is the largest tokamak in the world and the only fusion facility able to operate with Tritium, the fusion fuel, and Beryllium, the ITER first wall material. JET also features the most complete remote handling equipment for invessel maintenance. As a multinational research center, JET provides logistic experience in preparing for operation of the global facility, tokamak ITER.Experiments on JET are focused on ITER-relevant studies, in particular on detailing the operational scenarios (EL My H-modes and advanced regimes), on enhancing the heating systems, on developing diagnostics for burning plasmas etc. Pioneering real-time control techniques have been implemented that maximize performance and minimize internal disturbances of JET plasmas. In helium plasmas, ion cyclotron heating (ICRH) created fast α-particles, mimicking their populations in future burning plasmas. The recent successful Trace Tritium campaign provided important new data on fuel transport. Current enhancements on JET include a new ITER-like ELM-resilient high power ICRH antenna (7 MW) and over twenty new diagnostics that will further extend the JET scientific capabilities and push the facility even closer to the ITER parameters.A special mention is given to the involvement of the fusion experts from Association EURATOM-IPP.CR, who have been actively participating in the collective use of JET facility for more than three years.     

Divisible Effect Algebras

Divisible effect algebras and their relations to convex effect algebras and MV-algebras are studied. A categorical equivalence between divisible effect algebras and rational vector spaces is proved. Infinitesimal, sharp and extremal elements in divisible effect algebras are studied and their relations to properties of the state space are shown.     

Impurity-induced stabilization of Luttinger liquid in quasi-one-dimensional conductors

It is shown theoretically that the Luttinger liquid can exist in quasi-one-dimensional conductors in the presence of impurities in a form of a collection of bounded Luttinger liquids. The conclusion is based on the observation by Kane and Fisher that a local impurity potential in Luttinger liquid acts, at low energies, as an infinite barrier. This leads to a discrete spectrum of collective charge and spin density fluctuations, so that interchain hopping can be considered as a small parameter at temperatures below the minimum excitation energy of the collective modes. The results are compared with recent experimental observation of a Luttinger-liquid-like behavior in thin NbSe₃ and TaS₃ wires.     

Influence of impurities on the metallization of inert gases at high pressures

It is shown that the introduction of heavy inert gas impurities into the condensed phase of a lighter inert gas can significantly change the kinetic properties of the latter at high pressures. The electronic structure of the ordered Ar₁₅Xe solid solution is calculated. Doping of the condensed phase of a light inert gas with atoms of a heavier inert gas may become a new convenient tool in high-pressure experiments.     

On the possibility of terahertz wave generation upon dense gas optical breakdown

The possibility of applying the physical principles underlying the operation of a solid-state terahertz oscillator to plasma gas-discharge media is analyzed. A new method of electromagnetic wave generation in the terahertz frequency range is proposed. It is based on the excitation of plasma-oscillation current by a static electric field in a laser spark produced by an axicon lens, followed by the radiation of an electromagnetic pulse through the Cherenkov mechanism.     

Capture of an Ensemble of Microparticles in the Field of Laser Multibeam Interference

Capture of an ensemble of polymeric microspheres in a water suspension under the action of optical gradient forces in the field of interfering laser beams has been investigated for the case of two-, three-, and four-beam interference. The self-diffraction and diffraction of radiation on induced ordered spatial distribution of particles have been obtained.     

Dynamics of Single-Pulse Echo Signals under the Conditions of Zeeman Switching

The signals of a single-pulse echo (SE) generated on nonresonant excitation of an inhomogeneously broadened two-level system by a radio-frequency pulse (RFP), against the background of which a magnetic video pulse (MVP) of certain length has been switched on, have been described analytically. It is established that under the conditions of such excitation several SE signals are formed whose generation moments are determined by the duration and amplitudes of the RFP and MVP. The amplitudes of some of these signals depend on the Rabi frequency according to a quadratic law, and the amplitudes of others depend on this frequency according to a biquadratic law. It has been established that the mechanism underlying the appearance of these signals is associated with zero beats arising as a result of superposition of the magnetization fluctuations at variable frequencies and at a frequency of detuning from resonance. It is shown that in the limiting case, where the RFP duration considerably exceeds the duration of the MVP or is comparable with it, the number of SE signals decreases to two. Theoretical results on the formation of SE and the dependence of the amplitude of these signals on the MVP amplitude agree with the experimental data on NMR pulsed signals in ferromagnetic materials.     

Classical and quantum integrability for a class of potentials in two dimensions

A method for the construction of the second constant of motion in fourth order is carried out. Correspondingly the fourth order potential equation is obtained whose solutions directly provide the classical integrable systems. Second constant of motion is obtained for a large class of potentials. Quantum invariants are also obtained with second order quantum corrections of the order O(?²) to the corresponding classical invariants. The phase space diagrams for these cases are drawn using a mathematical computer software package in two dimensions.     

Spectral enhancement of Polish vowels to improve their identification by hearing impaired listeners

Abnormalities in the cochlear function usually cause broadening of the auditory filters which reduces the speech intelligibility. An attempt to apply a spectral enhancement algorithm has been undertaken to improve the identification of Polish vowels by subjects with cochlear-based hearing-impairment. The identification scores of natural (unprocessed) vowels and spectrally enhanced (processed) vowels has been measured for hearing-impaired subjects. It has been found that spectral enhancement improves vowel scores by about 10% for those subjects, however, a wide variation in individual performance among subjects has been observed. The overall vowels identification scores obtained were 85% for natural vowels and 96% for spectrally enhanced vowels.