Active subspace analysis is a useful computational tool to identify and exploit the most important linear combinations in the space of a model's input parameters. These directions depend inherently on a quantity of interest, which can be represented as a function from input parameters to model outputs. As the dynamics of many plasma models are driven by potentially uncertain parameter values, the utilization of active subspaces to perform global sensitivity analysis represents an important tool to understand how certain physical phenomena depend upon fluctuations in the values of these parameters. In the current paper, we construct and implement new computational methods to quantify the induced uncertainty within the growth rate generated by perturbations in a collisionless plasma modeled by the one-dimensional Vlasov-Poisson system near an unstable, spatially-homogeneous equilibrium in the linear regime.
New class instabilities is identified in Hall plasmas in configurations with open magnetic field lines. It is shown that sheath resistivity results in a robust instability driven by the equilibrium electric field. It is conjectured that these instabilities play a crucial role in anomalous transport in Hall plasmas devices.
Runaway particles can be produced in plasmas with large electric fields. Here we address the possibility that such runaway ions and electrons excite Alfvénic instabilities. The magnetic perturbation induced by these modes can enhance the loss of runaways. This may have important implications for the runaway electron beam formation in tokamak disruptions.
We consider the collective neutrino plasma interactions, and study the electron plasma instabilities produced by a nearly mono-energetic neutrino beam in a plasma. We describe the mutual influence of neutrino flavor oscillations and electron plasma waves. We show that the neutrino flavor oscillations are not only perturbed by electron plasmas waves, but also contribute to the dispersion relation and the growth rates of neutrino beam instabilities.
Among the numerous works on quantum effects that have been published in recent years, streaming instabilities in plasma have also been revisited. Both the fluid quantum and the kinetic Wigner-Maxwell models have been used to explore quantum effects on the Weibel, Filamentation and Two-Stream instabilities. While quantum effects usually tend to reduce the instabilities, they can also spur new unstable branches. A number of theoretical results will be reviewed together with the implications to one physical setting, namely the electron driven fast ignition scenario.
Vibrational modes and instabilities of a dust particle pair in a terrestrial laboratory complex plasma are investigated employing an analytical method whereby the plasma wakefield induced by an external electric field is modeled using an image charge method. It is found that for both horizontally and vertically aligned dust particle pairs in equilibrium, four normal modes exist. Variations of the confinement parameters cause a single type of instability in the horizontal pair and two types of instabilities in the vertical pair.
The non-modal kinetic theory of the kinetic drift instability of plasma shear flows [Phys.Plasmas, 18, 062103 (2011)] is extended to the investigation of the long-time evolution of the hydrodynamic ion temperature gradient and resistive drift instabilities in plasma shear flow. We find, that these hydrodynamic instabilities passed in their temporal evolution in shear flow through the kinetic stage of the evolution. In linear theory, this evolution involves the time dependent, due to flow shear, effects of the finite Larmor radius, which resulted in the non-modal effect of the decrease with tim…
We describe main ideas of method of many-particle quantum hydrodynamics allows to derive equations for description of quantum plasma evolution. We also present definitions of collective quantum variables suitable for quantum plasmas. We show that evolution of magnetic moments (spins) in quantum plasmas leads to several new branches of wave dispersion: spin-electromagnetic plasma waves and self-consistent spin waves. Propagation of neutron beams through quantum plasmas is also considered. Instabilities appearing due to interaction of magnetic moments of neutrons with plasma are described.
Plasmas with anisotropic electron velocity distribution functions are needed for the controlled study of kinetic plasma instabilities in the laboratory. We demonstrate that such plasma can be produced using ultrashort laser pulses via optical-field ionization (OFI). We experimentally show this control by using Thomson scattering as a diagnostic to probe the characteristic electron velocity distributions using linearly and circularly polarized laser pulses to ionize helium. Furthermore the He plasma produced by a circularly polarized light pulse exhibits the onset of the electron streaming inst…
The first linear global electromagnetic gyrokinetic particle simulation on the excitation of toroidicity induced Alfven eigenmode (TAE) by energetic particles is reported. With an increase in the energetic particle pressure, the TAE frequency moves down into the lower continuum.
Plasma boundary layers are susceptible to electrostatic instabilities driven by ion flows in presheaths and, when present, these instabilities can influence transport. In plasmas with a single species of positive ion, ion-acoustic instabilities are expected under conditions of low pressure and large electron-to-ion temperature ratio ($T_e/T_i \gg 1$). In plasmas with two species of positive ions, ion-ion two-stream instabilities can also be excited. The stability phase-space is characterized using the Penrose criterion and approximate linear dispersion relations. Predictions for how these inst…
For plasma velocity space instabilities driven by particle distributions significantly deviated from a Maxwellian, weak collisions can damp the instabilities by an amount that is significantly beyond the collisional rate itself. This is attributed to the dual role of collisions that tend to relax the plasma distribution toward a Maxwellian and to suppress the linearly perturbed distribution function. The former effect can dominate in cases where the unstable non-Maxwellian distribution is driven by collisionless transport on a time scale much shorter than that of collisions, and the growth rat…
The external and independent control of plasma flow velocity shears parallel and perpendicular to magnetic field lines is realized using segmented collisionless-plasma sources. Electrostatic ion-cyclotron instabilities are observed to be suppressed by the perpendicular flow velocity shears, the suppression physics of which is found to be distinguished into two aspects. On the other hand, the parallel flow velocity shears are demonstrated to destabilize the ion-cyclotron instabilities depending on the sign of the parallel shear in the absence of field-aligned electron drift flow.
Relativistic electron beam propagation in plasma is fraught with several micro instabilities like two stream, filamentation etc., in plasma. This results in severe limitation of the electron transport through a plasma medium. Recently, however, there has been an experimental demonstration of improved transport of Mega Ampere of electron currents (generated by the interaction of intense laser with solid target) in a carbon nanotube structured solid target [Phys. Rev Letts. 108, 235005 (2012)]. This then suggests that the inhomogeneous plasma (created by the ionization of carbon nano tube struct…
The properties of linear instabilities in the Large Plasma Device [W. Gekelman et al., Rev. Sci. Inst., 62, 2875 (1991)] are studied both through analytic calculations and solving numerically a system of linearized collisional plasma fluid equations using the 3D fluid code BOUT [M. Umansky et al., Contrib. Plasma Phys. 180, 887 (2009)], which has been successfully modified to treat cylindrical geometry. Instability drive from plasma pressure gradients and flows is considered, focusing on resistive drift waves, the Kelvin-Helmholtz and rotational interchange instabilities. A general linear disp…
The conditions for the excitation of current and voltage oscillations in the plasma of a three-electrode current and voltage stabilizer are experimentally investigated. It was found that in the regimes under consideration, the plasma has negative conductivity, which causes oscillations. A highly efficient method for suppressing plasma instabilities is proposed, based on controlling the sign of differential plasma conductivity by adjusting the concentration of slow electrons using an external electrode. The proposed method makes it possible to achieve a high level of stability of the energy cha…
Parametric instabilities driven by partially coherent radiation in plasmas are described by a generalized statistical Wigner-Moyal set of equations, formally equivalent to the full wave equation, coupled to the plasma fluid equations. A generalized dispersion relation for Stimulated Raman Scattering driven by a partially coherent pump field is derived, revealing a growth rate dependence, with the coherence width $σ$ of the radiation field, scaling with $1/σ$ for backscattering (three-wave process), and with $1/σ^{1/2}$ for direct forward scattering (four-wave process). Our results demonstrate …
A new evolution pattern for parametric instabilities in the non-linear stage driven by a broadband laser is studied with kinetic particle-in-cell simulations. It is found that an intermittent excitation of parametric instabilities caused by the high-intensity pulses, which are generated by the laser intensity variation of the broadband laser. The synergism between these high-intensity pulses reduces the Landau damping through the co-propagation of the electron-plasma waves and hot electrons, promoting the transition from convective to absolute stimulated Raman scattering. These intermittently …
A computational fluid model is developed to study waves and instabilities. A new technique involving initial perturbations in configuration space have been implemented to excite the plasma waves; i.e. the perturbations acting similar to a random velocity distribution in particle in cell (PIC) codes. This forms a new powerful tool for investigation of many waves arising in both thermal and cold plasmas and as such will allow investigation of problems demanding scales and resolution not yet possible by PIC codes. The model predicts Langmuir waves, two stream instabilities, nonlinear wave-wave in…
The drift-Alfven instabilities in the magnetic field aligned (parallel) sheared flow of a finite beta plasma with comparable inhomogeneous ion temperature and homogeneous electron temperature are examined. The development of instabilities are quantitatively discussed on the basis of numerical solution of a set of equations for the electrostatic and electromagnetic potentials. It is found that the accounting for the electromagnetic ion kinetic response, which has been ignored usually in existing discussions of the drift-Alfven instabilities of a steady plasma, reveals new drift-Alfven instabili…
This paper develops a unified linear theory of local cross-field plasma instabilities, such as the Farley-Buneman, electron thermal, and ion thermal instabilities, in collisional plasmas with fully or partially unmagnetized multi-species ions. Collisional lasma instabilities in low-ionized, highly dissipative, weakly magnetized plasmas play an important role in the lower Earth's ionosphere and may be of importance in other planet ionospheres, star atmospheres, cometary tails, molecular clouds, accretion disks, etc. In the solar chromosphere, macroscopic effects of collisional plasma instabilit…
Fluid simulations show that when a sinusoidal density modulation is superimposed on a linear density profile, convective instabilities can become absolutely unstable. This conversion can occur for two-plasmon-decay and stimulated Raman Scattering instabilities under realistic direct-drive inertial confinement fusion conditions and can affect hot electron generation and laser energy deposition. Analysis of the three-wave model shows that a sufficiently large change of the density gradient in a linear density profile can turn convective instabilities into absolute ones. An analytical expression …
Small quasi-two-dimensional (2D) dust clusters consisting of three to eleven particles are formed in an argon plasma under varying rf power. Their normal modes are investigated through their mode spectra obtained from tracking thermal motion of the particles. Detailed coupling patterns between their horizontal and vertical modes are detected for particle numbers up to seven and discrete instabilities are found for dust clusters with particle number greater than nine, as predicted in previous theory on ion-flow induced mode coupling in small clusters. The instabilities are proven to be induced …
The statistics of edge-localised plasma instabilities (ELMs) in toroidal magnetically confined fusion plasmas are considered. From first principles, standard experimentally motivated assumptions are shown to determine a specific probability distribution for the waiting times between ELMs: the Weibull distribution. This is confirmed empirically by a statistically rigorous comparison with a large data set from the Joint European Torus (JET). The successful characterisation of ELM waiting times enables future work to progress in various ways. Here we present a quantitative classification of ELM t…
Solutions to a model 2D eigenmode equation describing micro-instabilities in tokamak plasmas are presented that demonstrate a sensitivity of the mode structure and stability to plasma profiles. In narrow regions of parameter space, with special plasma profiles, a maximally unstable mode is found that balloons on the outboard side of the tokamak. This corresponds to the conventional picture of a ballooning mode. However, for most profiles this mode cannot exist and instead a more stable mode is found that balloons closer to the top or bottom of the plasma. Good quantitative agreement with a 1D …
Plasma instabilities are the non-linear processes occurring in plasmas when excess energy gets accumulated in a plasma system which is unable to hold it. There are almost 60 known plasma instabilities in nature.
The collision of two expanding plasma clouds is investigated, emphasizing instabilities and electron energization in the plasma mixing layer. This work is directly relevant to laboratory experiments with explosively-created laser or z-pinch plasmas but may also elucidate naturally occurring plasma collisions in astrophysical or space physics contexts. In the previous publications [1,2] we have studied, analytically and numerically, the flow emerging from interpenetrating coronas launched by two parallel wires vaporized in a vacuum chamber. The main foci of the studies have been on the general …
Investigation of Laser Plasma Instabilities driven by Coupled High-Power Laser Beams in Magnetized Underdense Plasmas
University of Bordeaux（波尔多大学）；INRS EMT（国家研究研究所电磁学与技术中心）；Laboratoire pour l’Utilisation des Lasers Intenses, UMR 7605 CNRS-CEA-École Polytechnique- Université Paris VI（高强度激光利用实验室）；CNRS, LNCMI, Univ Toulouse 3, INSA Toulouse, Univ Grenoble Alpes, EMFL（法国国家科学研究中心低磁场强电流实验室）；ELI-NP, ”Horia Hulubei” National Institute for Physics and Nuclear Engineering（极高性能激光设施-核物理与工程霍里亚·胡卢贝伊国家研究所）；Sorbonne Université, Observatoire de Paris, Université PSL（索邦大学、巴黎天文台、巴黎文理研究大学）
A 1-D linear gyrokinetic code called AWECS is developed to study the kinetic excitation of Alfvenic instabilities in a high-beta tokamak plasma, with beta being the ratio of thermal to magnetic pressure. It is designed to describe physics associated with a broad range of frequencies and wavelengths. For example, AWECS is capable of simulating kinetic ballooning modes, Alfvenic ion-temperature-gradient-driven modes, as well as Alfven instabilities due to energetic particles. In addition, AWECS may be used to study drift-Alfven instabilities in the low-beta regime. Here, the layout of the code a…
Our understanding of physical systems generally depends on our ability to match complex computational modelling with measured experimental outcomes. However, simulations with large parameter spaces suffer from inverse problem instabilities, where similar simulated outputs can map back to very different sets of input parameters. While of fundamental importance, such instabilities are seldom resolved due to the intractably large number of simulations required to comprehensively explore parameter space. Here we show how Bayesian machine learning can be used to address inverse problem instabilitie…
The development of parametric instabilities in a large scale inhomogeneous plasma with an incident laser beam composed of multiple-frequency components is studied theoretically and numerically. Firstly, theoretical analyses of the coupling between two laser beamlets with certain frequency difference $δω_0$ for parametric instabilities is presented. It suggests that the two beamlets will be decoupled when $δω_0$ is larger than certain thresholds, which are derived for stimulated Raman scattering (SRS), stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS), and two plasmon decay (TPD), respectively. In this cas…
The destabilizing role of neutrino beams on the Trivelpiece-Gould modes is considered, assuming electrostatic perturbations in a magnetized plasma composed by electrons in a neutralizing ionic background, coupled to a neutrino species by means of an effective neutrino force arising from the electro-weak interaction. The magnetic field is found to significantly improve the linear instability growth rate, as calculated for Supernova type II environments. On the formal level, for wave vector parallel or perpendicular to the magnetic field the instability growth rate is found from the unmagnetized…
The nonlinear regime of laser-plasma interaction including both two-plasmon--decay (TPD) and stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) instabilities has been studied in three-dimensional (3-D) particle-in-cell simulations with parameters relevant to the inertial confinement fusion (ICF) experiments. SRS and TPD develop in the same region in plasmas, and the generation of fast electrons can be described accurately with only the full model including both SRS and TPD. The growth of instabilities in the linear stage is found to be in good agreement with analytical theories. In the saturation stage the enh…
The quantum mechanical effect on the plasma two-stream instability is studied based on the dielectric function approach. The analysis suggests that the degenerate plasma relevant to the inertial confinement fusion behaves differently from classical plasmas when the electron drift velocity is comparable to the Fermi velocity. For high wave vector comparable to the Fermi wave vector, the degenerate quantum plasma has larger regime of the two-stream instabilities than the classical plasma. A regime, where the plasma waves with the frequency larger than 1.5 times of the Langmuir wave frequency bec…
For the simulation of disruptions in tokamak fusion plasmas, a fluid model describing the evolution of relativistic runaway electrons and their interaction with the background plasma is presented. The overall aim of the model is to self-consistently describe the nonlinear coupled evolution of runaway electrons (REs) and plasma instabilities during disruptions. In this model, the runaway electrons are considered as a separate fluid species in which the initial seed is generated through the Dreicer source, which eventually grows by the avalanche mechanism (further relevant source mechanisms can …
Collisionless plasmas, such as those encountered in tokamaks, exhibit a rich variety of instabilities. The physical origin, triggering mechanisms and fundamental understanding of many plasma instabilities, however, are still open problems. We investigate the stability properties of a collisionless Vlasov plasma in a stationary homogeneous magnetic field. We narrow the scope of our investigation to the case of Maxwellian plasma. For the first time using a fully kinetic approach we show the emergence of the local instability, a transient growth, followed by classical Landau damping in a stable m…
Kappa distributions are ubiquitous in space and astrophysical poorly collisional plasmas, such as the solar wind, suggesting that microscopic and macroscopic properties of these non-equilibrium plasmas are highly conditioned by the wave-particle interactions. The present work addresses the evolution of anisotropic bi-Kappa (or bi-$κ$-)distributions of electrons triggering instabilities of electromagnetic electron-cyclotron (or whistler) modes. The new quasi-linear approach proposed here includes time variations of the $κ$ parameter during the relaxation of temperature anisotropy. Numerical res…
For a two week period during the Joint European Torus (JET) 2012 experimental campaign, the same high confinement plasma was repeated 151 times. The dataset was analysed to produce a probability density function (pdf) for the waiting times between edge-localised plasma instabilities ("ELMS"). The result was entirely unexpected. Instead of a smooth single peaked pdf, a succession of 4-5 sharp maxima and minima uniformly separated by 7-8 millisecond intervals was found. Here we explore the causes of this newly observed phenomenon, and conclude that it is either due to a self-organised plasma phe…
The electron firehose instabilities are among the most studied kinetic instabilities, especially in the context of space plasmas, whose dynamics is mainly controlled by collisionless wave-particle interactions. This paper undertakes a comparative analysis of the aperiodic electron firehose instabilities excited either by the anisotropic temperature or by the electron counter-beaming populations. Two symmetric counter-beams provide an effective kinetic anisotropy similar to the temperature anisotropy of a single (non-drifting) population, with temperature along the magnetic field direction larg…
A two-fold analysis of electromagnetic core tokamak instabilities in the framework of the gyrokinetic theory is presented. First principle theoretical foundations of the gyrokinetic theory are used to explain and justify the numerical results obtained with the global electromagnetic particle-in-cell code Orb5 whose model is derived from the Lagrangian formalism. The energy conservation law corresponding to the Orb5 model is derived from the Noether theorem and implemented in the code as a diagnostics for energy balance and conservation verification. An additional Noether theorem based diagnost…
This paper summarizes the studies of plasma kinetic instabilities in the electron cyclotron frequency range carried out over the last decade at the Institute of Applied Physics of Russian Academy of Sciences. We investigate the nonequilibrium plasma created and sustained by high-power microwave radiation of a gyrotron under the electron cyclotron resonance condition. Resonant plasma heating results in the formation of at least two electron components, one of which, more dense and cold, determines the dispersion properties of the high-frequency waves, and the second, a small group of energetic …
Electronic parametric instabilities of an ultrarelativistic circularly polarized laser pulse propagating in underdense plasmas are studied by numerically solving the dispersion relation which includes the effect of the radiation reaction force in laser-driven plasma dynamics. Emphasis is placed on studying the different modes in the laser-plasma system and identifying the absolute and convective nature of the unstable modes in a parameter map spanned by the normalized laser vector potential and the plasma density. Implications for the ultraintense laser-plasma experiments are pointed out.
We investigate the nonlinear interaction between two laser beams in a plasma in the weakly nonlinear and relativistic regime. The evolution of the laser beams is governed by two nonlinear Schroedinger equations that are coupled with the slow plasma density response. We study the growth rates of the Raman forward and backward scattering instabilities as well of the Brillouin and self-focusing/modulational instabilities. The nonlinear evolution of the instabilities is investigated by means of direct simulations of the time-dependent system of nonlinear equations.
Kinetic effects in plasma flow due to a finite ion temperature and ion reflections in a converging-diverging magnetic nozzle are investigated with collisionless quasineutral hybrid simulations with kinetic ions and isothermal Boltzmann electrons. It is shown that in the cold ions limit the velocity profile of the particles agrees well with the analytical theory predicting the formation of the global accelerating potential due to the magnetic mirror with the maximum of the magnetic field and resulting in the transonic ion velocity profile. The global transonic ion velocity profile is also obtai…
The kinetic theory for the instabilities driven by the Hall current with a sheared current velocity, which has the method of the shearing modes or the so-called non-modal approach as its foundation, is developed. The developed theory predicts that in the Hall plasma with the inhomogeneous electric field, the separate spatial Fourier mode of the perturbations is determined in the frame convected with one of the plasma components. Because of the different shearing of the ion and electron flows in the Hall plasma, this mode is perceived by the second component as the Doppler-shifted continuously …
Remarkable progress has been made in diagnosing energetic particle instabilities on present-day machines and in establishing a theoretical framework for describing them. This overview describes the much improved diagnostics of Alfven instabilities and modelling tools developed world-wide, and discusses progress in interpreting the observed phenomena. A multi-machine comparison is presented giving information on the performance of both diagnostics and modelling tools for different plasma conditions outlining expectations for ITER based on our present knowledge.
Parametric instabilities of the inhomogeneous near SOL tokamak plasma, driven by the coupled effect of the high harmonic fast wave and of the ion and electron temperatures gradients, and anomalous heating of the near SOL ions
Plasma Research Center, Pusan National University（釜山国立大学等离子体研究中心）；Department of Electrical Engineering, Pusan National University（釜山国立大学电气工程系）
The electromagnetic instabilities excited by the temperature anisotropy have been always one of the interesting issues in real high-density physical systems, where the relativistic and quantum effects due to spin can be important. This paper discusses the case where plasma is not strongly coupled but is still in regimes where a classic plasma description is not fully adequate. The length scale of the plasma can be larger than the de-Broglie length so that the quantum effects relevance to the spin can be significant. In addition, the only relativistic effects are due to the electrons spin, for …
Plasma equilibria reconstructed from the Mega-Amp Spherical Tokamak (MAST) have sufficient resolution to capture plasma evolution during the short period between edge-localized modes (ELMs). Immediately after the ELM steep gradients in pressure, P, and density, ne, form pedestals close to the separatrix, and they then expand into the core. Local gyrokinetic analysis over the ELM cycle reveals the dominant microinstabilities at perpendicular wavelengths of the order of the ion Larmor radius. These are kinetic ballooning modes (KBMs) in the pedestal and microtearing modes (MTMs) in the core clos…
In magnetic confinement fusion devices like tokamaks, it is crucial to confine the high energy fusion-born helium nuclei ($α$-particles) to maintain the energy equilibrium of the plasma. However, energetic ions can excite various instabilities which can lead to their enhanced radial transport. Consequently, these instabilities may degrade the heating efficiency and they can also cause harmful power loads on the plasma-facing components of the device. Therefore, the understanding of these modes is a key issue regarding future burning plasma experiments. One of the main open questions concerning…
