Reduced equations that describe low-frequency plasma dynamics play an important role in our understanding of plasma behavior over long time scales. One of the oldest paradigms for reduced plasma dynamics involves the ponderomotive Hamiltonian formulation of the oscillation-center dynamics of charged particles (over slow space-time scales) in a weakly-nonuniform background plasma perturbed by an electromagnetic field with fast space-time scales. These reduced plasma equations are derived here by Lie-transform and variational methods for the case of a weakly-magnetized background plasma. In particular, both methods are used to derive explicit expressions for the ponderomotive polarization and magnetization, which appear in the oscillation-center Vlasov-Maxwell equations.
In the present paper, we propose a variational average-atom model of electron-ion plasma performing a quantum treatment of bound electrons and accounting for correlations (VAAQBEC). This model addresses the correlation functions in a weakly-coupled plasma, while also accounting self-consistently for the ion average shell structure. This is done at the price of treating the free electrons classically, whereas bound electrons are treated quantum-mechanically. When ions are approximated by point-like particles, the present approach yields the usual Debye-Hückel corrections to the orbital energies…
Two applications of the Noether method for fluids and plasmas are presented based on the Euler-Lagrange and Euler-Poincare variational principles, which depend on whether the dynamical fields are to be varied independently or not, respectively. The relativistic cold laser-plasma equations, describing the interaction between an intense laser field with a cold relativistic electron plasma, provide a useful set of equations amenable to both variational formulations. The derivation of conservation laws by Noether method proceeds from the Noether equation, whose form depends on the variational form…
The frequency-dependent linear response of a plasma is studied in the finite-temperature Thomas-Fermi approximation, with electron dynamics described using Bloch hydrodynamics. The variational framework of average-atoms in a plasma is used. Extinction cross-sections are calculated for several plasma conditions. Comparisons with a previously studied Thomas-Fermi Impurity in Jellium model are presented. An Ehrenfest-type sum rule, originally proposed in a full quantum approach is derived in the present formalism and checked numerically. This sum rule is used to define Bremsstrahlung and collecti…
We propose a model of ion-electron plasma (or nucleus-electron plasma) that accounts for the electronic structure around nuclei (i.e. ion structure) as well as for ion-ion correlations. The model equations are obtained through the minimization of an approximate free-energy functional, and it is shown that the model fulfills the virial theorem. The main hypotheses of this model are 1) nuclei are treated as classical indistinguishable particles 2) electronic density is seen as a superposition of a uniform background and spherically-symmetric distributions around each nucleus (system of ions in a…
The variational principle for linear stability of three-dimensional, inhomogenious, compressible, moving magnetized plasma is suggested. The principle is ``softer'' (easier to be satisfied) than all previously known variational stability conditions. The key point of the analysis is a conservation in variations of new integrals inherent in the linearized equation of the motion that was not earlier discussed in the literature.
The process of dynamical reduction of the Vlasov-Maxwell equations leads to the introduction of classical {\it zitterbewegung} effects in reduced plasma dynamics. These effects manifest themselves in the form of an asymmetric canonical energy-momentum tensor involving the decoupling of the reduced kinetic momentum ${\bf p}$ from the reduced velocity ${\bf u}$ (i.e., ${\bf u}\btimes{\bf p} \neq 0$) as well as reduced polarization and magnetization effects. The reduced intrinsic torque generated by the antisymmetric part of the canonical energy-momentum tensor, which is calculated from the reduc…
We consider a model for the propagation and absorption of electromagnetic waves (in the time-harmonic regime) in a magnetised plasma. We present a rigorous derivation of the model and several boundary conditions modelling wave injection into the plasma. Then we propose several variational formulations, mixed and non-mixed, and prove their well-posedness thanks to a theorem by Sébelin et~al. Finally, we propose a non-overlapping domain decomposition framework, show its well-posedness and equivalence with the one-domain formulation. These results appear strongly linked to the spectral properties…
The work on a new fully variational model of average-atom in quantum plasmas using a numerical code called VAAQP is reported. A brief description of the code is given. Application to aluminium at solid density and temperatures between 0.05 and 12 eV is presented. Comparisons to results obtained using other approaches are also shown and discussed. The results prove the feasibility of the variational model in the warm dense matter regime. Effects of the variational treatment can lead in this region to significant differences with respect to existing models.
Drift-reduced plasma fluid models are commonly used in plasma physics for analytics and simulations; however, the validity of such models must be verified for the regions of parameter space in which tokamak plasmas exist. By looking at the linear behaviour of drift-reduced and full-velocity models one can determine that the physics lost through the simplification that the drift-reduction provides is important in the core region of the tokamak. It is more acceptable for the edge-region but one must determine specifically for a given simulation if such a model is appropriate.
The foundations of gyrokinetic theory are reviewed with an emphasis on the applications of Lagrangian and Hamiltonian methods used in the derivation of nonlinear gyrokinetic Vlasov-Maxwell equations. These reduced dynamical equations describe the turbulent evolution of low-frequency electromagnetic fluctuations in nonuniform magnetized plasmas with arbitrary magnetic geometry.
A new code called VAAQP (Variational Average-Atom in Quantum Plasmas) is reported. The model as well as main results of previous studies are briefly recalled. The code is based on a new fully variational model of dense plasmas at equilibrium with quantum treatment of all electrons. The code can calculate the Average Atom structure and the mean ionization from the variational equations respecting the virial theorem and without imposing the neutrality of the Wigner-Seitz sphere. The formula obtained for the electronic pressure is simple and does not require any numerical differentiation. A descr…
Laser produced high-energy-density plasmas may contain strong magnetic fields that affect the energy transport, which can be nonlocal. Models which describe the magnetized nonlocal transport are formally complicated and based on many approximations. This paper presents a more straightforward approach to the description of the electron transport in this regime, based on the extension of a reduced entropic model. The calculated magnetized heat fluxes are compared with the known asymptotic limits and applied for studying of a magnetized nonocal plasma thermalization.
In this letter we derive an action principle for Coulomb collisions in plasmas. Although no natural Lagrangian exists for the Landau-Fokker-Planck equation, an Eulerian variational formulation is found considering the system of partial differential equations that couple the distribution function and the Rosenbluth potentials. Exact conservation laws are derived after generalizing the energy-momentum stress tensor for second order Lagrangians and, in the case of a test-particle population in a given plasma background, the action principle is shown to correspond to the Langevin equation for indi…
The Eulerian variational principle for the Vlasov-Poisson-Ampère system of equations in a general coordinate system is presented. The invariance of the action integral under an arbitrary spatial coordinate transformation is used to obtain the momentum conservation law and the symmetric pressure in a more direct way than using the translational and rotational symmetries of the system. Next, the Eulerian variational principle is given for the collisionless drift kinetic equation, where particles' phase-space trajectories in given electromagnetic fields are described by Littlejohn's guiding cente…
Drift-reduced MHD models are widely used to study magnetised plasma phenomena, in particular for magnetically confined fusion applications, as well as in solar and astrophysical research. This letter discusses the choice of Ohm's law in these models, the resulting dispersion relations for the dynamics parallel to the magnetic field, and the implications for numerical simulations. We find that if electron pressure is included in Ohm's law, then both electromagnetic and finite electron mass effects must also be included in order to obtain physical dispersion relations. A simple modification to t…
The effect of momentum injection on the temperature gradient in tokamak plasmas is studied. A plausible scenario for transitions to reduced transport regimes is proposed. The transition happens when there is sufficient momentum input so that the velocity shear can suppress or reduce the turbulence. However, it is possible to drive too much velocity shear and rekindle the turbulent transport. The optimal level of momentum injection is determined. The reduction in transport is maximized in the regions of low or zero magnetic shear.
We formulate a finite-size particle numerical model of strongly magnetized plasmas in the drift-kinetic approximation. We use the phase space action as an alternative to previous variational formulations based on Low's Lagrangian or on a Hamiltonian with a non-canonical Poisson bracket. The useful property of this variational principle is that it allows independent transformations of particle coordinates and velocities, i.e., transformations in particle phase space. With such transformations, a finite degree-of-freedom drift-kinetic action is obtained through time-averaging of the finite degre…
Embedding physical symmetries into machine-learned reduced plasma physics models via data augmentation
University of California, Los Angeles（加州大学洛杉矶分校）；Universidade de Lisboa（里斯本大学）；Mani L. Bhaumik Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of California at Los Angeles（加州大学洛杉矶分校马尼·L·巴乌米克理论物理研究所）
The dynamic interplay between the core and the edge plasma has important consequences in the confinement and heating of fusion plasma. The transport of the Scrape-Off-Layer (SOL) plasma imposes boundary conditions on the core plasma, and neutral transport through the SOL influences the core plasma sourcing. In order to better study these effects in a self-consistent, time-dependent fashion with reasonable turn-around time, a reduced model is needed. In this paper we introduce the SOL Box Model, a reduced SOL model that calculates the plasma temperature and density in the SOL given the core-to-…
Common time-explicit numerical methods for kinetic simulations of plasmas in the low-collisions limit fall into two classes of algorithms: momentum conserving and energy conserving. Each has certain drawbacks. The PIC algorithm does not conserve total energy, which may lead to spurious numerical heating (grid heating). Its overall accuracy is at most second due to the nature of the force interpolation between grid and particle position. Energy-conserving algorithms do not exhibit grid heating, but because their formulation uses potentials, computationally undesirable matrix inversions may be n…
We propose a scheme to calculate the reduced plasma frequency of a cylindrical-shaped electron beam flowing inside of a cylindrical tunnel, based on results obtained from Particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations. In PIC simulations, we modulate the electron beam using two parallel, non-intercepting, closely-spaced grids which are electrically connected together by a single-tone sinusoidal voltage source. The electron energy and the beam current distributions along the length of the tunnel are monitored after the system is operating at steady-state. We build a system matrix describing the beam's dyna…
A variational method is used to derive a self-consistent macro-particle model for relativistic electromagnetic kinetic plasma simulations. Extending earlier work [E. G. Evstatiev and B. A. Shadwick, J. Comput. Phys., vol. 245, pp. 376-398, 2013], the discretization of the electromagnetic Low Lagrangian is performed via a reduction of the phase-space distribution function onto a collection of finite-sized macro-particles of arbitrary shape and discretization of field quantities onto a spatial grid. This approach may be used with both lab frame coordinates or moving window coordinates; the latte…
Ideal magnetohydrodynamics (IMHD) is strongly constrained by an infinite number of microscopic constraints expressing mass, entropy and magnetic flux conservation in each infinitesimal fluid element, the latter preventing magnetic reconnection. By contrast, in the Taylor relaxation model for formation of macroscopically self-organized plasma equilibrium states, all these constraints are relaxed save for global magnetic fluxes and helicity. A Lagrangian variational principle is presented that leads to a new, fully dynamical, \emph{relaxed magnetohydrodynamics} (RxMHD), such that all static solu…
The Projection on Proper elements (PoPe) is a novel method of code control dedicated to 1) checking the correct implementation of models, 2) determining the convergence of numerical methods and 3) characterizing the residual errors of any given solution at very low cost. The basic idea is to establish a bijection between a simulation and a set of equations that generate it. Recovering equations is direct and relies on a statistical measure of the weight of the various operators. This method can be used in any dimensions and any regime, including chaotic ones. This method also provides a proced…
In this paper, we extend the multiscale approach developed in [Abel et. al., Rep. Prog. Phys., submitted] by exploiting the scale separation between ions and the electrons. The gyrokinetic equation is expanded in powers of the electron to ion mass ratio, which provides a rigorous method for deriving the reduced electron model. We prove that ion-scale electromagnetic turbulence cannot change the magnetic topology, and argue that to lowest order the magnetic field lies on fluctuating flux surfaces. These flux surfaces are used to construct magnetic coordinates, and in these coordinates a closed …
A mechanism for fast magnetic reconnection in collisionless plasma is studied for understanding sawtooth collapse in tokamak discharges by using a two-fluid model for cold ions and electrons. Explosive growth of the tearing mode enabled by electron inertia is analytically estimated by using an energy principle with a nonlinear displacement map. Decrease of the potential energy in the nonlinear regime (where the island width exceeds the electron skin depth) is found to be steeper than in the linear regime, resulting in accelerated reconnection. Release of potential energy by such a fluid displa…
The ideal CGL plasma equations, including the double adiabatic conservation laws for the parallel ($p_\parallel$) and perpendicular pressure ($p_\perp$), are investigated using a Lagrangian variational principle. An Euler-Poincaré variational principle is developed and the non-canonical Poisson bracket is obtained, in which the non-canonical variables consist of the mass flux ${\bf M}$, the density $ρ$, three entropy variables, $σ=ρS$, $σ_\parallel=ρS_\parallel$, $σ_\perp=ρS_\perp$ ($S_\parallel$ and $S_\perp$ are the two scalar entropy invariants), and the magnetic induction ${\bf B}$. Conser…
In this paper, the nonlinear mode conversion of extraordinary waves in nonuniform magnetized plasmas is studied using the variational symplectic particle-in-cell simulation. The accuracy of the nonlinear simulation is guaranteed by the long-term accuracy and conservativeness of the symplectic algorithm. The spectra of the electromagnetic wave, the evolution of the wave reflectivity, the energy deposition profile, and the parameter-dependent properties of radio-frequency waves during the nonlinear mode conversion are investigated. It is illustrated that nonlinear effects significantly modify th…
Electrical characterization of a nonthermal radio-frequency atmospheric-pressure microplasma in a parallel plate configuration has shown that reducing electrode gap into the submillimeter range increases current and power density at a reduced voltage as compared to similar plasmas at larger electrode gaps which have no gap dependence. Calculation of sheath thickness and electric fields in the sheath and in the bulk demonstrate a dependence on the electrode gap as it is reduced into the submillimeter regime, indicating a distinct regime of operation.
In this paper, a reduced model of quasilinear diffusion by a small Larmor radius approximation is derived to couple the Maxwell's equations and the Fokker-Planck equation self-consistently for ion cyclotron range of frequency waves in a tokamak. The reduced model ensures the important properties of the full model by Kennel-Engelmann diffusion, such as diffusion directions, wave polarizations, and H-theorem. The kinetic energy change (W-dot) is used to derive the reduced model diffusion coefficients for the fundamental damping and the second harmonic damping to the lowest order of the finite La…
Hamiltonian extended magnetohydrodynamics (XMHD) is restricted to respect helical symmetry by reducing the Poisson bracket for 3D dynamics to a helically symmetric one, as an extension of the previous study for translationally symmetric XMHD (D.A. Kaltsas et al, Phys. Plasmas 24, 092504 (2017)). Four families of Casimir invariants are obtained directly from the symmetric Poisson bracket and they are used to construct Energy-Casimir variational principles for deriving generalized XMHD equilibrium equations with arbitrary macroscopic flows. The system is then cast into the form of Grad-Shafranov…
The various plasma models - incompressible magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) model, compressible MHD model, incompressible Hall MHD model, compressible Hall MHD model, electron MHD model, compressible Hall MHD with electron inertia model - notwithstanding the diversity of the underlying physics, are shown to exhibit some common features in the Beltrami states like certain robustness with respect to the plasma compressibility effects (albeit in the barotropy assumption) and the {\it Bernoulli} condition. The Beltrami states for these models are deduced by minimizing the appropriate total energy while k…
Electromagnetic wave propagation through cold collision free plasma is studied using the nonlinear perturbation method. It is found that the equations can be reduced to the modified Kortweg-de Vries equation.
At the core of some of the most important problems in plasma physics -- from controlled nuclear fusion to the acceleration of cosmic rays -- is the challenge to describe nonlinear, multi-scale plasma dynamics. The development of reduced plasma models that balance between accuracy and complexity is critical to advancing theoretical comprehension and enabling holistic computational descriptions of these problems. Here, we report the data-driven discovery of accurate reduced plasma models, in the form of partial differential equations, directly from first-principles particle-in-cell simulations. …
The derivation of reduced MHD models for fusion plasma is here formulated as a special instance of the general theory of singular limit of hyperbolic system of PDEs with large operator. This formulation allows to use the general results of this theory and to prove rigorously that reduced MHD models are valid approximations of the full MHD equations. In particular, it is proven that the solutions of the full MHD system converge to the solutions of an appropriate reduced model.
The reductive perturbation method has been employed to derive the Korteweg-de Vries (KdV) equation for small but finite amplitude electrostatic waves. The Lagrangian of the time fractional KdV equation is used in similar form to the Lagrangian of the regular KdV equation. The variation of the functional of this Lagrangian leads to the Euler-Lagrange equation that leads to the time fractional KdV equation. The Riemann-Liouvulle definition of the fractional derivative is used to describe the time fractional operator in the fractional KdV equation. The variational-iteration method given by He is …
We consider the Hamiltonian structure of reduced fluid models obtained from a kinetic description of collisionless plasmas by Vlasov-Maxwell equations. We investigate the possibility of finding Poisson subalgebras associated with fluid models starting from the Vlasov-Maxwell Poisson algebra. In this way, we show that the only possible Poisson subalgebra involves the moments of zeroth and first order of the Vlasov distribution, meaning the fluid density and the fluid velocity. We find that the bracket derived in [Phys. Rev. Lett. 93, 175002 (2004)] which involves moments of order 2 is not a Poi…
In this work, a quasi-linear model for plasma flow response to the resonant magnetic perturbation (RMP) in a tokamak has been rigorously developed in the resistive-inertial (RI) and viscous-resistive (VR) regimes purely from the two-field reduced MHD model. Models for plasma response to RMP are commonly composed of equations for the resonant magnetic field response (i.e. the magnetic island) and the torque balance of plasma flow. However, in previous plasma response models, the magnetic island and the torque balance equations are often derived separately from reduced MHD and full MHD equations…
A dynamic mode decomposition (DMD) based reduced-order model (ROM) is developed for tracking, detection, and prediction of kinetic plasma behavior. DMD is applied to the high-fidelity kinetic plasma model based on the electromagnetic particle-in-cell (EMPIC) algorithm to extract the underlying dynamics and key features of the model. In particular, the ability of DMD to reconstruct the spatial pattern of the self electric field from high-fidelity data and the effect of DMD extrapolated self-fields on charged particle dynamics are investigated. An in-line sliding-window DMD method is presented f…
The perturbative variational formulation of the Vlasov-Maxwell equations is presented up to third order in the perturbation analysis. From the second and third-order Lagrangian densities, respectively, the first-order and second-order Vlasov-Maxwell equations are expressed in gauge-invariant and gauge-independent forms. Upon deriving the reduced second-order Vlasov-Maxwell Lagrangian for the linear nonadiabatic gyrokinetic Vlasov-Maxwell equations, the reduced Lagrangian densities for the linear drift-wave equation and the linear hybrid kinetic-magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) equations are derived, …
