arXiv subjects

Zhiyong Qiu

Publications and source records attributed to Zhiyong Qiu.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Linear and nonlinear benchmark of gyrokinetic simulation of energetic particle driven toroidal Alfven eigenmodes in ITPA TAE benchmark case

A new gyrokinetic code, TEK, was benchmarked in simulating energetic particle (EP) driven toroidal Alfven eigenmodes (TAEs) in the simple tokamak configuration chosen by the ITPA-EP group for code benchmarking purpose. Linear benchmark has been well established by other codes, whereas nonlinear benchmark for this case is lacking. This paper presents, besides the linear benchmark, nonlinear results for both single-n and multiple-n simulations (n is the toroidal mode number). The nonlinear results are in good agreement with an analytical theory on zonal field beat-driven by Alfven eigenmodes, partially verifying correctness of the nonlinear simulations. The saturation level and the resulting EP transport are examined. This provides data for future inter-code nonlinear benchmarking. In TEK, all species (electrons, thermal ions, EPs) are treated on the same footing using the gyrokinetic model (with electrons in the zero Larmor radius limit). The electromagnetic cancellation problem is mitigated by using the mixed-variable pullback method. Numerical details related to electromagnetic gyrokinetic simulation are discussed.

physics.plasm-ph↗

arXiv2026

Amorphous Nanoconfinement Enables Self-sustaining Sabatier Reaction at Ambient Conditions

The Sabatier reaction, the catalytic hydrogenation of CO2 into CH4, offers a cornerstone for carbon capture and utilization, and in-situ resource utilization during space exploration; however, it faces a fundamental thermodynamic-kinetic paradox: although highly exothermic, conventional catalysts still require continuous external heating to activate CO2 and maintain stable operation. Here we report an amorphous silica-embedded ruthenium catalyst that enables a long-term self-sustaining autothermal Sabatier reaction dispensing with external energy supply. Operating under ambient conditions, this system achieves a record-high CH4 yield of 0.50 mol gcat-1 h-1 with 100% selectivity, stable operation for over 2,000 hours, and a record-low catalyst bed temperature down to 100 oC. This exceptional self-sustaining behavior stems from the synergistic effect of the catalyst's ultralow effective thermal conductivity (0.27 W m-1 K-1), induced by amorphous nanoconfinement, and its superior intrinsic activity. This synergy generates localized hot spots at Ru sites while suppressing macroscopic heat loss. In situ measurements further reveal CH4 formation even at 54 oC and identify a *CO-mediated pathway for CO2 methanation. The reaction ignites readily with a lighter or focused sunlight and persists even under forced convection from an electric fan, demonstrating strong environmental tolerance. By removing the need for constant energy input, this "ignite-and-forget" system paves the way for decentralized Power-to-Gas systems and autonomous fuel production in resource-constrained environments like Mars.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2026

On nonlinear saturation of toroidal Alfvén eigenmode due to thermal plasma nonlinearities

The nonlinear saturation of toroidal Alfven eigenmode (TAE) due to thermal plasma nonlinearities is investigated using gyrokinetic particle-in-cell simulations and theoretical analysis. In the single toroidal mode number simulations with zonal fields filtered out, we find that the saturation level of TAE is governed by thermal plasma nonlinearities for gamma_L/omega_n > 0.47%, which has weak dependence on the linear drive gamma_L, i.e., "stiffness" in saturation level. We find that the frequency of TAE decreases as the amplitude of it increases, which is induced by the phase-space zonal structure (PSZS) of thermal plasmas universally existed in particle-in-cell simulations. The saturation of TAE can be finally reached when the mode merges into the continuum. Following this process, the separation of neighboring poloidal harmonics and mode transition to energetic particle modes can be observed. In simulations with zonal fields, zonal fields can essentially counteract the effects of PSZS of thermal plasmas, leading to roughly a factor of 2 enhancement of the TAE saturation level compared to the single toroidal mode number simulation, implying the necessity of including zonal modes in evaluating the saturation level of TAE.

physics.plasm-ph↗

arXiv2026

Discovery of Density Limit Disruption Induced by Core-localized Alfv${é}$nic Ion Temperature Gradient Instabilities in a Tokamak Plasma

To achieve a high energy gain, the fusion reactor plasma must reach a very high density. However, the tokamak plasmas ofen undergo disruption when the density exceeds the Greenwald density. The density limit disruption in tokamak plasmas is a mysterious barrier to magnetic confinement nuclear fusion, and hitherto, is still an unresolved issue. Over the past several years, the high density experiments with Greenwald density ratio $n_e/n_{eG}\sim1$ has been carried out using the conventional gas-puff fuelling method in HL-2A NBI and Ohmically heated plasmas. It is found for the first time that there are multiple-branch MHD instabilities in the core plasmas while $n_e/n_{eG}>0.85$. The simulation analysis suggests that the core-localized magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) activities belong to Alfv${é}$nic ion temperature gradient (AITG) modes, and on experiment firstly, it is discovered that they trigger the minor or major disruption of bulk plasmas while the density is peaked. These new findings are of great importance to figure out and understand the origin of density limit disruptions, as well as to forecast and avoid them for future fusion rectors.

physics.plasm-ph↗

arXiv2025

ActionFlow: A Pipelined Action Acceleration for Vision Language Models on Edge

Vision-Language-Action (VLA) models have emerged as a unified paradigm for robotic perception and control, enabling emergent generalization and long-horizon task execution. However, their deployment in dynamic, real-world environments is severely hin dered by high inference latency. While smooth robotic interaction requires control frequencies of 20 to 30 Hz, current VLA models typi cally operate at only 3-5 Hz on edge devices due to the memory bound nature of autoregressive decoding. Existing optimizations often require extensive retraining or compromise model accuracy. To bridge this gap, we introduce ActionFlow, a system-level inference framework tailored for resource-constrained edge plat forms. At the core of ActionFlow is a Cross-Request Pipelin ing strategy, a novel scheduler that redefines VLA inference as a macro-pipeline of micro-requests. The strategy intelligently batches memory-bound Decode phases with compute-bound Prefill phases across continuous time steps to maximize hardware utilization. Furthermore, to support this scheduling, we propose a Cross Request State Packed Forward operator and a Unified KV Ring Buffer, which fuse fragmented memory operations into efficient dense computations. Experimental results demonstrate that ActionFlow achieves a 2.55x improvement in FPS on the OpenVLA-7B model without retraining, enabling real-time dy namic manipulation on edge hardware. Our work is available at https://anonymous.4open.science/r/ActionFlow-1D47.

cs.AI↗

arXiv2025

On How Zonal Fields Suppress Reversed Shear Alfvén Eigenmode in Tokamak Plasmas

Employing both nonlinear gyrokinetic simulations and theoretical analyses, we have discovered the novel result that, with energetic particle dynamics kept linear, the nonlinear suppression and eventual saturation of reversed-shear Alfvén eigenmode occur via the downward frequency chirping induced by the beat-driven zonal current. More specifically, as the mode frequency chirps downward, there is enhanced mode conversion to radially propagating electron Landau-damped kinetic Alfvén waves; resulting in enhanced convective (radiative) damping and, thereby, its suppression and saturation. Theoretical results are in good agreement with simulations both qualitatively and quantitatively.

physics.plasm-ph↗

arXiv2025

Excitation of toroidal Alfvén eigenmode by energetic particles in DTT and effect of negative triangularity

A linear gyrokinetic eigenvalue code is developed to study the stability of toroidal Alfvén eigenmode (TAE) in general axisymmetric toroidal geometry, with the self-consistent treatment of energetic particle drive and core plasma Landau damping in a non-perturbative way. The general particle responses of both circulating and trapped particles are incorporated in the calculation by means of the action-angle approach, and, particularly, the finite Larmor radius and orbit width effects of energetic particles are fully taken into account. The ballooning-mode representation is adopted to solve the eigenmode equations in order to reduce the computational resource while obtaining a high resolution of the fine radial structure. Furthermore, the code is able to study the physics of wave-particle interaction in great detail, thanks to the development of systematic theory-based numerical diagnostics, including effective mode structure and phase space resonance structure. As an application of the code, we perform an in-depth study of the triangularity effect on TAE stability based on the reference equilibrium of the Divertor Tokamak Test facility. It is demonstrated that TAE growth rate can be affected by the triangularity through the modifications of geometric couplings, resonance condition, as well as mode frequency and mode structure. As a result, negative triangularity can either stabilize or destabilize the energetic particle driven TAE depending on the dominant mechanism. The relative importance of these mechanisms under different circumstances is systematically analyzed, providing clear physical insights. The overall effect of negative triangularity for a specific tokamak scenario can be assessed based on these studies.

physics.plasm-ph↗

arXiv2025

Stationary Power-Law Solutions of Kinetic-Alfvénic Turbulence

The wave-kinetic description of weak kinetic-Alfvénic turbulence based on the gyrokinetic theoretical framework is proposed. The wave kinetic equation describing kinetic Alfvén wave spectral cascading via resonant three-wave interactions is derived, and the stationary spectra are analytically obtained using the Zakharov transformation in both the long-wavelength limit and the short-wavelength limit, for both counter-propagating and co-propagating cases. The cascade directions of stationary solutions are identified and their existence is further verified by numerical solution of the wave kinetic equation. A brief discussion on the relevance of such predictions to the solar wind turbulence and helical kinetic-Alfvénic turbulence is presented.

physics.plasm-ph↗

arXiv2024

Indirect nonlinear interaction between toroidal Alfvén eigenmode and ion temperature gradient mode mediated by zonal structures

The indirect nonlinear interactions between toroidal Alfvén eigenmode (TAE) and ion temperature gradient mode (ITG) are investigated using nonlinear gyrokinetic theory and ballooning mode formalism. More specifically, the local nonlinear ITG mode equation is derived adopting the fluid-ion approximation, with the contributions of zonal field structure and phase space zonal structure beat-driven by finite amplitude TAE accounted for on the same footing. The obtained nonlinear ITG mode equation is solved both analytically and numerically, and it is found that, the zonal structure beat-driven by TAE has only weakly destabilizing effects on ITG, contrary to usual speculations and existing numerical results.

physics.plasm-ph↗

arXiv2024

Drift wave solitons and zonal flows: implication on staircase formation

The self-consistent nonlinear interaction of drift wave (DW) and zonal flow (ZF) is investigated using nonlinear gyrokinetic theory, with both spontaneous excitation and beat-driven of ZF by DW treated on the same footing. DW solitons are formed in the nonlinear DW-ZF interactions and are confined between radially spaced micro-barriers. The resulting radial structures in the nonlinear DW-ZF interactions exhibit similar pattern to the ExB "staircase" observed in numerical simulations. These micro-barriers are generated by the repulsive response due to spontaneously excited ZF, which, as a general property demonstrated in this work, also generate an attractive nonlinear potential in DW equation. Meanwhile, the nonlinear potential due to beat-driven ZF is always attractive and, as such, always serve as potential well to contribute to soliton formation. For spontaneously excited ZF from initial noise, the simultaneous excitation of solitons and micro-barriers is found to be universal, due to the zero frequency nature of ZF and spatial structure of the Reynolds stress. The present analysis, thus, provides a potential first-principle-based interpretation of the ExB staircase observed in simulations, which may contribute to micro transport barriers formation and enhance plasma confinement.

physics.plasm-ph↗

arXiv2024

Effects of plasma nonuniformity on zero frequency zonal structure generation by drift Alfven wave instabilities in toroidal plasmas

Effects of plasma nonuniformity on zero frequency zonal structure (ZFZS) excitation by drift Alfven wave (DAW) instabilities in toroidal plasmas are investigated using nonlinear gyrokinetic theory. The governing equations describing nonlinear interactions among ZFZS and DAWs are derived, with the contribution of DAWs self-beating and radial modulation accounted for on the same footing. The obtained equations are then used to derive the nonlinear dispersion relation, which is then applied to investigate ZFZS generation in several scenarios. In particular, it is found that, the condition for zonal flow excitation by kinetic ballooning mode (KBM) could be sensitive to plasma parameters, and more detailed investigation is needed to understand KBM nonlinear saturation, crucial for bulk plasma transport in future reactors.

physics.plasm-ph↗

arXiv2024

Nonlinear saturation of reversed shear Alfven eigenmode via high-frequency quasi-mode generation

A nonlinear saturation mechanism for reversed shear Alfven eigenmode (RSAE) is proposed and analysed, and is shown to be of relevance to typical reactor parameter region. The saturation is achieved through the generation of high-frequency quasi-mode due to nonlinear coupling of two RSAEs, which is then damped due to coupling with the shear Alfven continuum, and leads to the nonlinear saturation of the primary RSAEs . An estimation of the nonlinear damping rate is also provided.

physics.plasm-ph↗

arXiv2024

Calculation of toroidal Alfvén eigenmode mode structure in general axisymmetric toroidal geometry

A workflow is developed based on the ideal MHD model to investigate the linear physics of various Alfvén eigenmodes in general axisymmetric toroidal geometry, by solving the coupled shear Alfvén wave (SAW) and ion sound wave (ISW) equations in ballooning space. The model equations are solved by the FALCON code in the singular layer, and the corresponding solutions are then taken as the boundary conditions for calculating parallel mode structures in the whole ballooning space. As an application of the code, the frequencies and mode structures of toroidal Alfvén eigenmode (TAE) are calculated in the reference equilibria of the Divertor Tokamak Test facility (DTT) with positive and negative triangularities, respectively. By properly handling the boundary conditions, we demonstrate finite TAE damping due to coupling with the local acoustic continuum, and find that the damping rate is small for typical plasma parameters.

physics.plasm-ph↗

arXiv2024

Drift wave soliton formation via forced-driven zonal flow and implication on plasma confinement

In this work, gyrokinetic theory of drift waves (DWs) self-regulation via the forced driven zonal flow (ZF) is presented, and finite diamagnetic drift frequency due to plasma nonuniformity is shown to play dominant role in ZF forced generation. The obtained nonlinear DW equation is a nonlinear Schrödinger equation, in which the linear dispersiveness, linear growth, nonuniformity of diamagnetic drift frequency, and cubic nonlinearity induced by feedback of forced-driven ZF to DWs are self-consistently included. The nonlinear DW equation is solved numerically in both uniform and nonuniform plasmas. It is shown that DWenvelope soliton may form due to the balance of linear dispersiveness and nonlinearity, and lead to turbulence spreading to linearly stable region. It is further found that though the threshold on DW amplitude for soliton formation is well within the relevant parameter regimes of realistic tokamak experiments, solitons can not extend beyond the range bounded by the turning points of the wave packet when plasma nonuniformity is self-consistently accounted for.

physics.plasm-ph↗

arXiv2024

On beat-driven and spontaneous excitations of zonal flows by drift waves

Using the slab plasma as a paradigm model, we have derived analytically equations for the nonlinear generation of zero-frequency zonal flows by electron drift waves including, on the same footing, both the beat-driven and spontaneous excitations. It is found that the beat-driven zonal flow tends to reduce the frequency mismatch between the electron drift waves and, thereby, contributes to a significant O(1) enhancement of the modulational instability drive and lowering its threshold. Implications to tokamaks plasmas as well as drift-wave soliton formation are also discussed.

physics.plasm-ph↗

arXiv2024

Effects of plasma nonuniformity on toroidal Alfvén eigenmode nonlinear decay

The parametric decay of toroidal Alfvén eigenmode (TAE) in nonuniform plasmas is investigated using nonlinear gyrokinetic equation. It is found that, the plasma nonuniformity not only significantly enhances the nonlinear coupling cross-section, but also qualitatively modifies the decay process. Specifically, the condition for spontaneous decay becomes the toroidal mode number of the sideband TAE being higher than that of the pump TAE, instead of the frequency of the sideband TAE being lower than the pump TAE in uniform plasmas. The consequences on TAE saturation and energetic particle transport are also discussed.

physics.plasm-ph↗

arXiv2024

Resonant Decay of Kinetic Alfvén Waves and Implication on Spectral Cascading

A general equation describing the resonant nonlinear mode-coupling among kinetic Alfvén waves (KAWs) is derived using nonlinear gyrokinetic theory, which can be applied to study the potentially strong spectral energy transfer of KAWs. As a first application, the parametric decay of a pump KAW into two sideband KAWs are studied, with particular emphasis on the cascading in perpendicular wavenumber. It is found that, for the "co-propagating" cases with all three KAWs propagating in the same direction along the equilibrium magnetic field line, it exhibits a dual cascading character in the perpendicular wavenumber space; while for the "counter-propagating" cases with one sideband propagating in the opposite direction with respect to the pump wave, it instead, can exhibit both dual and inverse cascading behaviors. The implications on SAW instability nonlinear saturation and charged particle transport in fusion plasmas is also discussed.

physics.plasm-ph↗

arXiv2023

Nonlinear equilibria and transport processes in burning plasmas

In this work, we put forward a general phase-space transport theory in axisymmetric tokamak plasmas based upon the concept of zonal state (ZS). Within this theoretical framework, the ZS corresponds to a renormalized plasma nonlinear equilibrium consisting of phase-space zonal structures (PSZS) and zonal electromagnetic fields (ZFs) which evolve self-consistently with symmetry breaking fluctuations and sources/collisions. More specifically, our approach involves deriving governing equations for the evolution of particle distribution functions (i.e, PSZS), which can be used to compute the corresponding macro-/meso-scale evolving magnetized plasma equilibrium adopting the Chew Goldberger Low (CGL) description, separating the spatiotemporal microscale structures. The nonlinear physics of ZFs and of geodesic acoustic modes/energetic particle driven geodesic acoustic modes is then analyzed to illustrate the implications of our theory.

physics.plasm-ph↗