An electron temperature instability driven by the Kunkel-Guillory sheath impedance has been applied to the scrape-off layer of tokamaks. The formalism has been generalized in order to more fully account for parallel wavelength dynamics, to differentiate between electromagnetic and electrostatic perturbations and to account for particle recycling effects. It is conjectured that this conducting wall instability leads to edge fluctuations in tokamaks that produce scrape-off layers tens of ion gyroradii thick. The predicted instability characteristics have similarities to experimental edge fluctuation data, and the scrape-off layer width in the DIII-D experiment agrees with theoretical estimates that can be derived from mixing length theory
A new rapidly growing electron-temperature-gradient instability is found for a plasma in contact with a conducting wall. The linear instability analysis is presented and speculations are given for its nonlinear consequences. This instability illustrates that conducting walls can produce effects that are detrimental to plasma confinement. This mode is of importance in open-ended systems such as mirror machines and relevant to the edge of tokamaks where field lines are open and are connected to limiters or divertors and astrophysical plasmas like the ones of the flux tubes in a solar atmosphere, with the footpoints on the photospheric level.
Fast ions are observed to be very well confined in the Madison Symmetric Torus reversed field pinch despite the presence of stochastic magnetic field. The fast-ion energy loss is consistent with the classical slowing down rate, and their confinement time is longer than expected by stochastic estimates. Fast-ion confinement is measured from the decay of d-d neutrons following a short pulse of a 20 keV atomic deuterium beam. Ion confinement agrees with computation of particle trajectories in the stochastic magnetic field, and is understood through consideration of ion guiding center islands.
The very promising scheme for producing ultrapowerful laser pulses through Raman backscattering of pump lasers in plasmas can be jeopardized by superluminous precursors. Growing from the leading part of the Raman pumped seed pulse, these precursors can disturb the plasma and the pump ahead of the pumped pulse. These ruinous effects, however, might be averted by a detuning, large enough to suppress the precursors, yet small enough to allow the desired backscatter effect.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.