arXiv subjects

J W S Cook

Publications and source records attributed to J W S Cook.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2016

Stimulated emission of fast Alfvén waves within magnetically confined fusion plasmas

A fast Alfvén wave with finite amplitude is shown to grow by a stimulated emission process that we propose for exploitation in toroidal magnetically confined fusion plasmas. Stimulated emission occurs while the wave propagates inward through the outer mid-plane plasma, where a population inversion of the energy distribution of fusion-born ions is observed to arise naturally. Fully nonlinear first principles simulations, which self-consistently evolve particles and fields under the Maxwell-Lorentz system, demonstrate this novel "alpha-particle channelling" scenario for the first time.

physics.plasm-ph↗

arXiv2011

Gyrobunching and wave-particle resonance in the lower hybrid drift instability

We report a first principles study of the coupled evolution of energetic ions, background majority ions, electrons and electromagnetic fields in magnetised plasma during the linear phase of the lower hybrid drift instability. A particle-in-cell code, with one spatial and three velocity space co-ordinates, is used to analyse the evolving distribution of a drifting ring-beam population of energetic protons in physical space and gyrophase angle. This analysis is carried out for plasma parameters that approximate to edge conditions in large tokamaks, in a scenario that is motivated by observations of ion cyclotron emission and may be relevant to alpha channelling. Resonant energy transfer occurs at the two gyrophase angles at which the instantaneous speed of an energetic proton on its cyclotron orbit precisely matches the phase velocity of the lower hybrid wave along the simulation domain. Electron space-charge oscillations determine the wavelength of the propagating lower hybrid wave, and thereby govern the spatial distribution of gyrobunching of the energetic protons that drive the instability.

physics.plasm-ph↗

arXiv2010

Self-consistent kinetic simulations of lower hybrid drift instability resulting in electron current driven by fusion products in tokamak plasmas

We present particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations of minority energetic protons in deuterium plasmas, which demonstrate a collective instability responsible for emission near the lower hybrid frequency and its harmonics. The simulations capture the lower hybrid drift instability in a regime relevant to tokamak fusion plasmas, and show further that the excited electromagnetic fields collectively and collisionlessly couple free energy from the protons to directed electron motion. This results in an asymmetric tail antiparallel to the magnetic field. We focus on obliquely propagating modes under conditions approximating the outer mid-plane edge in a large tokamak, through which there pass confined centrally born fusion products on banana orbits that have large radial excursions. A fully self-consistent electromagnetic relativistic PIC code representing all vector field quantities and particle velocities in three dimensions as functions of a single spatial dimension is used to model this situation, by evolving the initial antiparallel travelling ring-beam distribution of 3MeV protons in a background 10keV Maxwellian deuterium plasma with realistic ion-electron mass ratio. The simulations thus demonstrate a key building block of alpha channelling scenarios for burning fusion plasmas in tokamaks.

physics.plasm-ph↗