Theoretical astrophysics and plasma physics at RPC

Abstract:

The flow shear associated with the differential toroidal rotation of tokamak plasmas breaks an underlying symmetry of the turbulent fluctuations imposed by the up-down symmetry of the magnetic equilibrium. Using experimental Beam-Emission-Spectroscopy (BES) measurements and gyrokinetic simulations, this symmetry breaking in ion-scale turbulence in MAST is shown to manifest itself as a tilt of the spatial correlation function and a finite skew in the distribution of the fluctuating density field. The tilt is a statistical expression of the "shearing" of the turbulent structures by the mean flow. The skewness of the distribution is related to the emergence of long-lived density structures in sheared, near-marginal plasma turbulence. The extent to which these effects are pronounced is argued (with the aid of the simulations) to depend on the distance from the nonlinear stability threshold. Away from the threshold, the symmetry is effectively restored.

Abstract:

Tokamaks with up–down asymmetric poloidal cross-sections spontaneously rotate due to turbulent transport of momentum. In this work, we investigate the effect of the Shafranov shift on this intrinsic rotation, primarily by analyzing tokamaks with tilted elliptical flux surfaces. By expanding the Grad–Shafranov equation in the large aspect ratio limit we calculate the magnitude and direction of the Shafranov shift in tilted elliptical tokamaks. The results show that, while the Shafranov shift becomes up–down asymmetric and depends strongly on the tilt angle of the flux surfaces, it is insensitive to the shape of the current and pressure profiles (when the geometry, total plasma current, and average pressure gradient are kept fixed). Next, local nonlinear gyrokinetic simulations of these MHD equilibria are performed with GS2, which reveal that the Shafranov shift can significantly enhance the momentum transport. However, to be consistent, the effect of ${{\beta}^{\prime}}$ (i.e. the radial gradient of β) on the magnetic equilibrium was also included, which was found to significantly reduce momentum transport. Including these two competing effects broadens the rotation profile, but leaves the on-axis value of the rotation roughly unchanged. Consequently, the shape of the β profile has a significant effect on the rotation profile of an up–down asymmetric tokamak.

Abstract:

We construct a new family of models of our Galaxy in which dark matter and disc stars are both represented by distribution functions that are analytic functions of the action integrals of motion. The potential that is self-consistently generated by the dark matter, stars and gas is determined, and parameters in the distribution functions are adjusted until the model is compatible with observational constraints on the circularspeed curve, the vertical density profile of the stellar disc near the Sun, the kinematics of nearly 200 000 giant stars within 2 kpc of the Sun, and estimates of the optical depth to microlensing of bulge stars. We find that the data require a dark halo in which the phase-space density is approximately constant for actions |J| ≲ 140 kpc km s−1 . In real space these haloes have core radii ≃ 2 kpc.

Abstract:

Tokamaks with up-down asymmetric poloidal cross-sections spontaneously rotate due to turbulent transport of momentum. In this work, we investigate the effect of the Shafranov shift on this intrinsic rotation, primarily by analyzing tokamaks with tilted elliptical flux surfaces. By expanding the Grad-Shafranov equation in the large aspect ratio limit we calculate the magnitude and direction of the Shafranov shift in tilted elliptical tokamaks. The results show that, while the Shafranov shift becomes updown asymmetric and depends strongly on the tilt angle of the flux surfaces, it is insensitive to the shape of the current and pressure profiles (when the geometry, total plasma current, and average pressure gradient are kept fixed). Next, local nonlinear gyrokinetic simulations of these MHD equilibria are performed with GS2, which reveal that the Shafranov shift can significantly enhance the momentum transport. However, to be consistent, the effect of β′ (i.e. the radial gradient of β) on the magnetic equilibrium was also included, which was found to significantly reduce momentum transport. Including these two competing effects broadens the rotation profile, but leaves the on-axis value of the rotation roughly unchanged. Consequently, the shape of the β profile has a significant effect on the rotation profile of an up-down asymmetric tokamak.