Basic Studies of Non-Diffusive Transport in Plasmas

Morales, George J.¹  Maggs, James E.¹ 

[1] University of California, Los Angeles, CA (United States)

关键词: TRANSPORT;    MAGNETIZED PLASMAS;    CHAOS;   

DOI  :  10.2172/1160300
RP-ID  :  1
PID  :  OSTI ID: 1160300

学科分类：原子、分子光学和等离子物理

美国|英语

来源: SciTech Connect

【 摘 要 】

The project expanded and developed mathematical descriptions, and corresponding numerical modeling, of non-diffusive transport to incorporate new perspectives derived from basic transport experiments performed in the LAPD device at UCLA, and at fusion devices throughout the world. By non-diffusive it is meant that the transport of fundamental macroscopic parameters of a system, such as temperature and density, does not follow the standard diffusive behavior predicted by a classical Fokker-Planck equation. The appearance of non-diffusive behavior is often related to underlying microscopic processes that cause the value of a system parameter, at one spatial position, to be linked to distant events, i.e., non-locality. In the LAPD experiments the underlying process was traced to large amplitude, coherent drift-waves that give rise to chaotic trajectories. Significant advances were made in this project. The results have lead to a new perspective about the fundamentals of edge transport in magnetically confined plasmas; the insight has important consequences for worldwide studies in fusion devices. Progress was also made in advancing the mathematical techniques used to describe fractional diffusion.