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F. Cianfrani

Publications and source records attributed to F. Cianfrani.

17 recordsLinked to original sources
arXiv2024

Turbulent features near the X point of a DTT-like tokamak plasma

The background magnetic geometry at the edge of a tokamak plasma has to be designed in order to mitigate the particle and energy looses essentially due to turbulent transport. The Divertor-Tokamak-Test (DTT) facility under construction at ENEA Frascati will test several magnetic configurations and mitigation strategies, that are usually based on the realization of nontrivial topologies in which one or more X points are present. In order to get a clear understanding of turbulent transport near one of such X points, we perform 3D electro-static fluid simulations of tokamak edge plasma for a DTT-like scenario. We will outline: i) the resulting turbulent spectral features and their dependence on some model parameters (the background pressure gradients and diffusivity) and on the magnetic geometry through a comparative analysis with the results of the companion paper [19], ii) the connection between small scale poloidal structures and toroidal asymmetries, iii) the formation of quiescent regions, iv)the crucial role of radial Dirichlet boundary conditions for the excitation of zonal flows that can screen the radial component of the magnetic geometry.

physics.plasm-ph↗
arXiv2024

On the edge turbulence in a DTT-like tokamak plasma

Turbulent transport provides the main contribution to particle and energy losses in tokamak plasmas, which control is of paramount importance for forthcoming reactors such as the Divertor-Tokamak-Test (DTT) facility under construction at ENEA Frascati. In this work we investigate the characteristic features of drift turbulence at the plasma edge through 3D electro-static fluid simulations. We outline the crucial role of the diffusion coefficient for the emerging turbulent spectra and for the excitation of vortex structures or zonal flows. Moreover, the impact of adding a poloidal magnetic component is discussed considering also a radial shear, and the emergence of anisotropic spectral features is emphasized. The analysis is extended to the case with Dirichlet boundary conditions along the radial direction, instead of the periodic ones usually employed in such kind of analyses.

physics.plasm-ph↗
arXiv2019

Flux driven pedestal formation in tokamaks: turbulence simulations validated against the isotope effect

The spontaneous pedestal formation above a power threshold at the edge of magnetically confined plasma is modelled for the first time in flux driven three-dimensional fluid simulations of electromagnetic turbulence with the code EMEDGE3D. The role of the collisional friction between trapped and passing particles is shown to be the key ingredient for shearing the radial electric field, hence stabilizing the turbulence, rather than the Maxwell and Reynolds stresses. The isotope effect, observed in many tokamaks worldwide, is recovered in EMEDGE3D simulations: the power threshold for pedestal formation is lower for Tritium than for Deuterium. The turbulence auto-correlation time is found to increase with the ion mass easing the radial electric shear stabilization, hence the pedestal formation.

physics.plasm-ph↗
arXiv2016

Implications of the Co-rotation Theorem on the MRI in Axial Symmetry

We analyze the linear stability of an axially symmetric ideal plasma disk, embedded in a magnetic field and endowed with a differential rotation. This study is performed by adopting the magnetic flux function as the fundamental dynamical variable, in order to outline the role played by the co-rotation theorem on the linear mode structure. Using some specific assumptions (e.g. plasma incompressibility and propagation of the perturbations along the background magnetic field), we select the Alfvenic nature of the Magneto-Rotational Instability and, in the geometric optics limit, we determine the dispersion relation describing the linear spectrum. We show how the implementation of the co-rotation theorem (valid for the background configuration) on the linear dynamics produces the cancellation of the vertical derivative of the disk angular velocity (we check such a feature also in the standard vector formalism to facilitate comparison with previous literature, both in the axisymmetric and three-dimensional case). As a result, we clarify that the unstable modes have, for a stratified disk, the same morphology, proper of a thin disk profile, and the $z$ dependence has a simple parametric role.

astro-ph.HE↗
arXiv2012

Solution of the noncanonicity puzzle in General Relativity: a new Hamiltonian formulation

We study the transformation leading from Arnowitt, Deser, Misner (ADM) Hamiltonian formulation of General Relativity (GR) to the $ΓΓ$ metric Hamiltonian formulation derived from the Lagrangian density which was firstly proposed by Einstein. We classify this transformation as gauged canonical - i.e. canonical modulo a gauge transformation. In such a study we introduce a new Hamiltonian formulation written in ADM variables which differs from the usual ADM formulation mainly in a boundary term firstly proposed by Dirac. Performing the canonical quantization procedure we introduce a new functional phase which contains an explicit dependence on the fields characterizing the 3+1 splitting. Given a specific regularization procedure our new formulation privileges the symmetric operator ordering in order to: have a consistent quantization procedure, avoid anomalies in constraints algebra, be equivalent to the Wheeler-DeWitt (WDW) quantization. Furthermore we show that this result is consistent with a path-integral approach.

gr-qc↗
arXiv2010

Gravity in presence of fermions as a SU(2) gauge theory

The Hamiltonian formulation of the Holst action in presence of a massless fermion field with a non-minimal Lagrangian is performed without any restriction on the local Lorentz frame. It is outlined that the phase space structure does not resemble that one of a background independent Lorentz gauge theory, as some additional constraints are present. Proper phase space coordinates are introduced, such that SU(2) connections can be defined and the vanishing of conjugate momenta to boost variables is predicted. Finally, it is demonstrated that for a particular value of the non-minimal parameter the kinematics coincides with that one of a background independent SU(2) gauge theory and the Immirzi parameter becomes the coupling constant of such an interaction between fermions and the gravitational field.

gr-qc↗
arXiv2009

Matter in Loop Quantum Gravity without time gauge: a non-minimally coupled scalar field

We analyze the phase space of gravity non-minimally coupled to a scalar field in a generic local Lorentz frame. We reduce the set of constraints to a first-class one by fixing a specific hypersurfaces in the phase space. The main issue of our analysis is to extend the features of the vacuum case to the presence of scalar matter by recovering the emergence of an SU(2) gauge structure and the non-dynamical role of boost variables. Within this scheme, the super-momentum and the super-Hamiltonian are those ones associated with a scalar field minimally coupled to the metric in the Einstein frame. Hence, the kinematical Hilbert space is defined as in canonical Loop Quantum Gravity with a scalar field, but the differences in the area spectrum are outlined to be the same as in the time-gauge approach.

gr-qc↗
arXiv2008

Fundamentals and recent developments in non-perturbative canonical Quantum Gravity

The aim of this review is to provide a detailed account of the physical content emerging from this story of the canonical approach to Quantum Gravity. All the crucial steps in our presentation have a pedagogical character, providing the reader with the necessary tools to become involved in the field. Such a pedagogical aspect is then balanced and completed by subtle discussions on specific topics which we regard as relevant for the physical insight they outline on the treated questions. Our analysis is not aimed at convincing the reader about a pre-constituted point of view, bu instead our principal goal is to review the picture of Canonical Quantum Gravity on the basis of the concrete facts at the ground of its clear successes, but also of its striking shortcomings.

gr-qc↗
arXiv2008

The role of the time gauge in the 2nd order formalism

We perform a canonical quantization of gravity in a second-order formulation, taking as configuration variables those describing a 4-bein, not adapted to the space-time splitting. We outline how, neither if we fix the Lorentz frame before quantizing, nor if we perform no gauge fixing at all, is invariance under boost transformations affected by the quantization.

gr-qc↗
arXiv2008

Curvature-spin coupling from the semi-classical limit of the Dirac equation

The notion of a classical particle is inferred from Dirac quantum fields on a curved space-time, by an eikonal approximation and a localization hypothesis for amplitudes. This procedure allows to define a semi-classical version of the spin-tensor from internal quantum degrees of freedom, which has a Papapetrou-like coupling with the curvature.

gr-qc↗
arXiv2008

Synchronous Quantum Gravity

The implications of restricting the covariance principle within a Gaussian gauge are developed both on a classical and a quantum level. Hence, we investigate the cosmological issues of the obtained Schrödinger Quantum Gravity with respect to the asymptotically early dynamics of a generic Universe. A dualism between time and the reference frame fixing is then inferred.

gr-qc↗
arXiv2008

Elementary particle interaction from a Kaluza-Klein scheme

We discuss properties of particles and fields in a multi-dimensional space-time, where the geometrization of gauge interactions can be performed. As far as spinors are concerned, we outline how the gauge coupling can be recognized by a proper dependence on extra-coordinates and by the dimensional reduction procedure. Finally applications to the Electro-Weak model are presented.

gr-qc↗
arXiv2008

E.C.G. Stueckelberg: a forerunner of modern physics II

We will investigate some aspects of Stueckelberg's work, which have contributed to the development of modern physics. On the one hand, the definition of diffuse boundaries in the calculation of scattering amplitudes will be reviewed, and compared with the other proposals by physicists of that time. On the other hand, the applications of Stueckelberg's description of a massive vector field in the Standard Model will be discussed.

physics.hist-ph↗
arXiv2007

Boost symmetry in the Quantum Gravity sector

We perform a canonical quantization of gravity in a second-order formulation, taking as configuration variables those describing a 4-bein, not adapted to the space-time splitting. We outline how, neither if we fix the Lorentz frame before quantizing, nor if we perform no gauge fixing at all, is invariance under boost transformations affected by the quantization.

gr-qc↗
arXiv2005

Non Abelian gauge symmetries induced by the unobservability of extra-dimensions in a Kaluza-Klein approach

In this work we deal with the extension of the Kaluza-Klein approach to a non-Abelian gauge theory; we show how we need to consider the link between the n-dimensional model and a four-dimensional observer physics, in order to reproduce fields equations and gauge transformations in the four-dimensional picture. More precisely, in fields equations any dependence on extra-coordinates is canceled out by an integration, as consequence of the unobservability of extra-dimensions. Thus, by virtue of this extra-dimensions unobservability, we are able to recast the multidimensional Einstein equations into the four-dimensional Einstein-Yang-Mills ones, as well as all the right gauge transformations of fields are induced. The same analysis is performed for the Dirac equation describing the dynamics of the matter fields and, again, the gauge coupling with Yang-Mills fields are inferred from the multidimensional free fields theory, together with the proper spinors transformations.

gr-qc↗
arXiv2005

Gauge theories as a geometrical issue of a Kaluza-Klein framework

We present a geometrical unification theory in a Kaluza-Klein approach that achieve the geometrization of a generic gauge theory bosonic component. We show how it is possible to derive the gauge charge conservation from the invariance of the model under extra-dimensional translations and to geometrize gauge connections for spinors, thus we can introduce the matter just by free spinorial fields. Then, we present the applications to i)a pentadimensional manifold $V^{4}\otimes S^{1}$, so reproducing the original Kaluza-Klein theory, unless some extensions related to the rule of the scalar field contained in the metric and the introduction of matter by spinors with a phase dependence from the fifth coordinate, ii)a seven-dimensional manifold $V^{4}\otimes S^{1}\otimes S^{2}$, in which we geometrize the electro-weak model by introducing two spinors for any leptonic family and quark generation and a scalar field with two components with opposite hypercharge, responsible of spontaneous symmetry breaking.

gr-qc↗