Radu Balescu and the search for an stochastic description of turbulent transport in plasmas

Journal Article · Mon Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 2007 · Annals of the University of Craiova: Physics Series

OSTI ID:931988

Sanchez, Raul ^[1]; Carreras, Benjamin A ^[1]; van Milligen, B. Ph. ^[2]

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1. ORNL
2. Asociacion EURATOM-CIEMAT

An idea that the late Prof. Radu Balescu often pondered during his long and distinguished scientific career was the possibility of constructing simple stochastic or probabilistic models able to capture the basic features of the complex dynamics of turbulent transport in magnetically confined plasmas. In particular, the application of the continuous-time random walk (CTRW) concept to this task was one of his favorites. In the last few years prior to his death, we also became interested in applying (variations of the standard) CTRW to these problems. In our case, it was the natural way to move beyond the simple paradigms based on sandpile constructs that we had been previously studying. This common interest fueled an intense electronic correspondence between Prof. Balescu and us that started in 2004 and was only interrupted by his unexpected death in June 2006. In this paper, we pay tribute to his memory by reviewing some of these exciting concepts that interested him so much and by sketching the problems and ideas that we discussed so frequently during these two years. Regretfully, he will no longer be here to help us solve them.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL)
• Sponsoring Organization: ORNL LDRD Director's R&D
• DOE Contract Number: AC05-00OR22725
• OSTI ID: 931988
• Journal Information: Annals of the University of Craiova: Physics Series, Journal Name: Annals of the University of Craiova: Physics Series Vol. 17
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
MAGNETIC CONFINEMENT
MASS TRANSFER
PLASMA
PLASMA SIMULATION
TURBULENCE
fluid closure
nondiffusive transport
renormalization theory
turbulent transport