Growth and decay of runaway electrons above the critical electric field under quiescent conditions
Abstract
Extremely low density operation free of error eld penetration supports the excitation of trace-level quiescent runaway electron (RE) populations during the at-top of DIII-D Ohmic discharges. Operation in the quiescent regime allows accurate measurement of all key parameters important to RE excitation, including the internal broadband magnetic fluctuation level. RE onset is characterized and found to be consistent with primary (Dreicer) generation rates. Impurity-free collisional suppression of the RE population is investigated by stepping the late-time main-ion density until RE decay is observed. The transition from growth to decay is found to occur 3-5 times above the theoretical critical electric eld for avalanche growth and is thus indicative of anomalous RE loss. Lastly, this suggests that suppression of tokamak RE avalanches can be achieved at lower density than previously expected, though extrapolation requires predictive understanding of the RE loss mechanism and magnitude.
- Authors:
-
- Oak Ridge Inst. for Science and Education (ORISE), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
- General Atomics, San Diego, CA (United States)
- Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)
- Univ. of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA (United States)
- Univ. of California, Los Angeles, CA (United States)
- Univ. of Texas, Austin, TX (United States)
- Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
- Univ. of California, Irvine, CA (United States)
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE Office of Nuclear Energy (NE)
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1354820
- Grant/Contract Number:
- FC02-04ER54698
- Resource Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- Physics of Plasmas
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 21; Journal Issue: 2; Journal ID: ISSN 1070-664X
- Publisher:
- American Institute of Physics (AIP)
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
Citation Formats
Paz-Soldan, Carlos, Eidietis, Nicholas W., Granetz, Robert S., Hollmann, Eric M., Moyer, Richard A., Wesley, John C., Zhang, Jie, Austin, Max E., Crocker, Neal A., Wingen, Andreas, and Zhu, Yubao. Growth and decay of runaway electrons above the critical electric field under quiescent conditions. United States: N. p., 2014.
Web. doi:10.1063/1.4866912.
Paz-Soldan, Carlos, Eidietis, Nicholas W., Granetz, Robert S., Hollmann, Eric M., Moyer, Richard A., Wesley, John C., Zhang, Jie, Austin, Max E., Crocker, Neal A., Wingen, Andreas, & Zhu, Yubao. Growth and decay of runaway electrons above the critical electric field under quiescent conditions. United States. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4866912
Paz-Soldan, Carlos, Eidietis, Nicholas W., Granetz, Robert S., Hollmann, Eric M., Moyer, Richard A., Wesley, John C., Zhang, Jie, Austin, Max E., Crocker, Neal A., Wingen, Andreas, and Zhu, Yubao. Thu .
"Growth and decay of runaway electrons above the critical electric field under quiescent conditions". United States. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4866912. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1354820.
@article{osti_1354820,
title = {Growth and decay of runaway electrons above the critical electric field under quiescent conditions},
author = {Paz-Soldan, Carlos and Eidietis, Nicholas W. and Granetz, Robert S. and Hollmann, Eric M. and Moyer, Richard A. and Wesley, John C. and Zhang, Jie and Austin, Max E. and Crocker, Neal A. and Wingen, Andreas and Zhu, Yubao},
abstractNote = {Extremely low density operation free of error eld penetration supports the excitation of trace-level quiescent runaway electron (RE) populations during the at-top of DIII-D Ohmic discharges. Operation in the quiescent regime allows accurate measurement of all key parameters important to RE excitation, including the internal broadband magnetic fluctuation level. RE onset is characterized and found to be consistent with primary (Dreicer) generation rates. Impurity-free collisional suppression of the RE population is investigated by stepping the late-time main-ion density until RE decay is observed. The transition from growth to decay is found to occur 3-5 times above the theoretical critical electric eld for avalanche growth and is thus indicative of anomalous RE loss. Lastly, this suggests that suppression of tokamak RE avalanches can be achieved at lower density than previously expected, though extrapolation requires predictive understanding of the RE loss mechanism and magnitude.},
doi = {10.1063/1.4866912},
journal = {Physics of Plasmas},
number = 2,
volume = 21,
place = {United States},
year = {Thu Feb 27 00:00:00 EST 2014},
month = {Thu Feb 27 00:00:00 EST 2014}
}
Free Publicly Available Full Text
Publisher's Version of Record
Other availability
Search WorldCat to find libraries that may hold this journal
Cited by: 59 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science
Web of Science
Save to My Library
You must Sign In or Create an Account in order to save documents to your library.
Works referenced in this record:
Electron and Ion Runaway in a Fully Ionized Gas. I
journal, July 1959
- Dreicer, H.
- Physical Review, Vol. 115, Issue 2
Runaway acceleration during magnetic reconnection in tokamaks
journal, November 2002
- Helander, P.; Eriksson, L-G; Andersson, F.
- Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion, Vol. 44, Issue 12B
Chapter 3: MHD stability, operational limits and disruptions
journal, June 2007
- Hender, T. C.; Wesley, J. C.; Bialek, J.
- Nuclear Fusion, Vol. 47, Issue 6
Runaway electron production in DIII-D killer pellet experiments, calculated with the CQL3D/KPRAD model
journal, November 2000
- Harvey, R. W.; Chan, V. S.; Chiu, S. C.
- Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 7, Issue 11
Electron kinetics in a cooling plasma
journal, December 2004
- Helander, P.; Smith, H.; Fülöp, T.
- Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 11, Issue 12
Magnetic Reconnection in Astrophysical and Laboratory Plasmas
journal, September 2009
- Zweibel, Ellen G.; Yamada, Masaaki
- Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Vol. 47, Issue 1
Relativistic limitations on runaway electrons
journal, June 1975
- Connor, J. W.; Hastie, R. J.
- Nuclear Fusion, Vol. 15, Issue 3
Stability of a runaway electron beam
journal, June 1986
- Besedin, N. T.; Pankratov, I. M.
- Nuclear Fusion, Vol. 26, Issue 6
Collisional avalanche exponentiation of runaway electrons in electrified plasmas
journal, January 1993
- Jayakumar, R.; Fleischmann, H. H.; Zweben, S. J.
- Physics Letters A, Vol. 172, Issue 6
Theory for avalanche of runaway electrons in tokamaks
journal, October 1997
- Rosenbluth, M. N.; Putvinski, S. V.
- Nuclear Fusion, Vol. 37, Issue 10
Fokker-Planck simulations mylb of knock-on electron runaway avalanche and bursts in tokamaks
journal, November 1998
- Chiu, S. C.; Rosenbluth, M. N.; Harvey, R. W.
- Nuclear Fusion, Vol. 38, Issue 11
Generation and loss of runaway electrons following disruptions in JET
journal, November 1993
- Gill, R. D.
- Nuclear Fusion, Vol. 33, Issue 11
Control of post-disruption runaway electron beams in DIII-D
journal, May 2012
- Eidietis, N. W.; Commaux, N.; Hollmann, E. M.
- Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 19, Issue 5
Effect of applied toroidal electric field on the growth/decay of plateau-phase runaway electron currents in DIII-D
journal, September 2011
- Hollmann, E. M.; Parks, P. B.; Humphreys, D. A.
- Nuclear Fusion, Vol. 51, Issue 10
Control and dissipation of runaway electron beams created during rapid shutdown experiments in DIII-D
journal, July 2013
- Hollmann, E. M.; Austin, M. E.; Boedo, J. A.
- Nuclear Fusion, Vol. 53, Issue 8
The runaway electron discharge regime in the Tokamak-6 device
journal, August 1973
- Vlasenkov, V. S.; Leonov, V. M.; Merezhkin, V. G.
- Nuclear Fusion, Vol. 13, Issue 4
Runaway electrons in toroidal discharges
journal, June 1979
- Knoepfel, H.; Spong, D. A.
- Nuclear Fusion, Vol. 19, Issue 6
Investigation of ring-like runaway electron beams in the EAST tokamak
journal, April 2013
- Zhou, R. J.; Hu, L. Q.; Li, E. Z.
- Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion, Vol. 55, Issue 5
The kinetic theory of runaway electron beam instability in a tokamak
journal, March 1978
- Parail, V. V.; Pogutse, O. P.
- Nuclear Fusion, Vol. 18, Issue 3
Destabilization of magnetosonic-whistler waves by a relativistic runaway beam
journal, June 2006
- Fülöp, T.; Pokol, G.; Helander, P.
- Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 13, Issue 6
Interaction of tearing modes with external structures in cylindrical geometry (plasma)
journal, July 1993
- Fitzpatrick, R.
- Nuclear Fusion, Vol. 33, Issue 7
Nonlinear error-field penetration in low density ohmically heated tokamak plasmas
journal, August 2012
- Fitzpatrick, R.
- Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion, Vol. 54, Issue 9
The limits and challenges of error field correction for ITER
journal, May 2012
- Buttery, R. J.; Boozer, A. H.; Liu, Y. Q.
- Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 19, Issue 5
Multi-mode error field correction on the DIII-D tokamak
journal, March 2003
- Scoville, J. T.; Haye, R. J. La
- Nuclear Fusion, Vol. 43, Issue 4
Long-Pulse Suprathermal Discharges in the ASDEX Tokamak
journal, October 1981
- Fussmann, G.; Campbell, D.; Eberhagen, A.
- Physical Review Letters, Vol. 47, Issue 14
Experimental investigation of runaway electron generation in TEXTOR
journal, December 1993
- Jaspers, R.; Finken, K. H.; Mank, G.
- Nuclear Fusion, Vol. 33, Issue 12
Islands of Runaway Electrons in the TEXTOR Tokamak and Relation to Transport in a Stochastic Field
journal, June 1994
- Jaspers, R.; Cardozo, N. J. Lopes; Finken, K. H.
- Physical Review Letters, Vol. 72, Issue 26
Control of runaway electron secondary generation by changing Z eff
journal, February 1998
- Pankratov, I. M.; Jaspers, R.; Finken, K. H.
- Nuclear Fusion, Vol. 38, Issue 2
Losses of runaway electrons during ergodization
journal, March 2006
- Finken, K. H.; Abdullaev, S. S.; Jakubowski, M.
- Nuclear Fusion, Vol. 46, Issue 4
Runaway losses in ergodized plasmas
journal, January 2007
- Finken, K. H.; Abdullaev, S. S.; Jakubowski, M. W.
- Nuclear Fusion, Vol. 47, Issue 2
Sawtooth Instability in Tokamak Plasmas
journal, January 1997
- Hastie, R. J.
- Astrophysics and Space Science, Vol. 256, Issue 1/2, p. 177-204
Experimental Observation of a Magnetic-Turbulence Threshold for Runaway-Electron Generation in the TEXTOR Tokamak
journal, June 2013
- Zeng, L.; Koslowski, H. R.; Liang, Y.
- Physical Review Letters, Vol. 110, Issue 23
Rotation Reversal Bifurcation and Energy Confinement Saturation in Tokamak Ohmic -Mode Plasmas
journal, December 2011
- Rice, J. E.; Cziegler, I.; Diamond, P. H.
- Physical Review Letters, Vol. 107, Issue 26
Behaviour of disruption generated runaways in JET
journal, August 2002
- Gill, R. D.; Alper, B.; Baar, M. de
- Nuclear Fusion, Vol. 42, Issue 8
Visible imaging and spectroscopy of disruption runaway electrons in DIII-D
journal, April 2013
- Yu, J. H.; Hollmann, E. M.; Commaux, N.
- Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 20, Issue 4
Role of Bremsstrahlung Radiation in Limiting the Energy of Runaway Electrons in Tokamaks
journal, June 2005
- Bakhtiari, M.; Kramer, G. J.; Takechi, M.
- Physical Review Letters, Vol. 94, Issue 21
Numerical calculation of the runaway electron distribution function and associated synchrotron emission
journal, March 2014
- Landreman, Matt; Stahl, Adam; Fülöp, Tünde
- Computer Physics Communications, Vol. 185, Issue 3
Influence of stochastic magnetic fields on relativistic electrons
journal, October 2006
- Wingen, A.; Abdullaev, S. S.; Finken, K. H.
- Nuclear Fusion, Vol. 46, Issue 11
Influence of B t on the magnetic turbulence and on the runaway transport in low-density discharges
journal, February 2012
- Kudyakov, T.; Abdullaev, S. S.; Bozhenkov, S. A.
- Nuclear Fusion, Vol. 52, Issue 2
Temporal and spectral evolution of runaway electron bursts in TEXTOR disruptions
journal, September 2012
- Forster, M.; Finken, K. H.; Kudyakov, T.
- Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 19, Issue 9
Neutron fluctuation measurements on TFTR
journal, August 1986
- Heidbrink, W. W.
- Review of Scientific Instruments, Vol. 57, Issue 8
Spatially distributed scintillator arrays for diagnosing runaway electron transport and energy behavior in tokamaks
journal, October 2010
- James, A. N.; Hollmann, E. M.; Tynan, G. R.
- Review of Scientific Instruments, Vol. 81, Issue 10
Vertical‐viewing electron cyclotron emission diagnostic for the DIII‐D tokamak
journal, August 1988
- James, Reed; Janz, S.; Ellis, R.
- Review of Scientific Instruments, Vol. 59, Issue 8
Determination of the suprathermal electron distribution function during lower hybrid current drive in JET
journal, January 1994
- Brusati, M.; Bartlett, D. V.; Ekedahl, A.
- Nuclear Fusion, Vol. 34, Issue 1
Measurements of edge-localized-mode induced electron cyclotron emission bursts in DIII-D
journal, May 2001
- Fuchs, Ch.; Austin, M. E.
- Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 8, Issue 5
Analytic model for the runaway distribution function in the presence of spatial diffusion
journal, March 1994
- Catto, Peter J.; Myra, J. R.; Wootton, A. J.
- Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 1, Issue 3
Suppression of runaway electron avalanches by radial diffusion
journal, January 2000
- Helander, P.; Eriksson, L. -G.; Andersson, F.
- Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 7, Issue 10
Asymptotical Theory of Runaway Electron Diffusion Due to Magnetic Turbulence in Tokamak Plasmas
journal, November 2010
- Abdullaev, S. S.; Finken, K. H.; Kudyakov, T.
- Contributions to Plasma Physics, Vol. 50, Issue 10
New mechanism of runaway electron diffusion due to microturbulence in tokamaks
journal, July 2012
- Abdullaev, S. S.; Finken, K. H.; Forster, M.
- Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 19, Issue 7
Design of a millimeter-wave polarimeter for NSTX-Upgrade and initial test on DIII-D
journal, October 2012
- Zhang, J.; Peebles, W. A.; Carter, T. A.
- Review of Scientific Instruments, Vol. 83, Issue 10
A sensitivity assessment of millimeter-wave polarimetry for measurement of magnetic fluctuations associated with microtearing modes in NSTX-U
journal, March 2013
- Zhang, J.; Crocker, N. A.; Peebles, W. A.
- Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion, Vol. 55, Issue 4
Electron Heat Transport in a Tokamak with Destroyed Magnetic Surfaces
journal, January 1978
- Rechester, A. B.; Rosenbluth, M. N.
- Physical Review Letters, Vol. 40, Issue 1
Quasilinear diffusion in stochastic magnetic fields: Reconciliation of drift‐orbit modification calculations
journal, April 1993
- Myra, J. R.; Catto, Peter J.; Mynick, H. E.
- Physics of Fluids B: Plasma Physics, Vol. 5, Issue 4
Runaway electron drift orbits in magnetostatic perturbed fields
journal, March 2011
- Papp, G.; Drevlak, M.; Fülöp, T.
- Nuclear Fusion, Vol. 51, Issue 4
Analysis of shot-to-shot variability in post-disruption runaway electron currents for diverted DIII-D discharges
journal, July 2012
- Izzo, V. A.; Humphreys, D. A.; Kornbluth, M.
- Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion, Vol. 54, Issue 9
Works referencing / citing this record:
Numerical simulation of runaway electrons: 3-D effects on synchrotron radiation and impurity-based runaway current dissipation
journal, May 2018
- del-Castillo-Negrete, D.; Carbajal, L.; Spong, D.
- Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 25, Issue 5
Resolving runaway electron distributions in space, time, and energy
journal, May 2018
- Paz-Soldan, C.; Cooper, C. M.; Aleynikov, P.
- Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 25, Issue 5
Runaway electron imaging spectrometry (REIS) system
journal, July 2019
- Causa, F.; Gospodarczyk, M.; Buratti, P.
- Review of Scientific Instruments, Vol. 90, Issue 7
Phase-space dynamics of runaway electrons in magnetic fields
journal, February 2017
- Guo, Zehua; McDevitt, Christopher J.; Tang, Xian-Zhu
- Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion, Vol. 59, Issue 4
Study of runaway electrons in TUMAN-3M tokamak plasmas
journal, May 2018
- Shevelev, A.; Khilkevitch, E.; Tukachinsky, A.
- Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion, Vol. 60, Issue 7
Effect of partially ionized impurities and radiation on the effective critical electric field for runaway generation
journal, June 2018
- Hesslow, L.; Embréus, O.; Wilkie, G. J.
- Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion, Vol. 60, Issue 7
Runaway electron experiments at COMPASS in support of the EUROfusion ITER physics research
journal, November 2018
- Mlynar, J.; Ficker, O.; Macusova, E.
- Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion, Vol. 61, Issue 1
Low-frequency whistler waves in quiescent runaway electron plasmas
journal, November 2018
- Heidbrink, W. W.; Paz-Soldan, C.; Spong, D. A.
- Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion, Vol. 61, Issue 1
Spatiotemporal evolution of runaway electrons from synchrotron images in Alcator C-Mod
journal, October 2018
- Tinguely, R. A.; Granetz, R. S.; Hoppe, M.
- Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion, Vol. 60, Issue 12
The role of kinetic instabilities in formation of the runaway electron current after argon injection in DIII-D
journal, November 2018
- Lvovskiy, A.; Paz-Soldan, C.; Eidietis, N. W.
- Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion, Vol. 60, Issue 12
Transverse force induced by a magnetized wake
journal, October 2019
- Lafleur, Trevor; Baalrud, Scott D.
- Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion, Vol. 61, Issue 12
The effect of lower hybrid waves on JET plasma rotation
journal, December 2016
- Nave, M. F. F.; Kirov, K.; Bernardo, J.
- Nuclear Fusion, Vol. 57, Issue 3
Interpretation of runaway electron synchrotron and bremsstrahlung images
journal, June 2018
- Hoppe, M.; Embréus, O.; Paz-Soldan, C.
- Nuclear Fusion, Vol. 58, Issue 8
Physics of runaway electrons in tokamaks
journal, June 2019
- Breizman, Boris N.; Aleynikov, Pavel; Hollmann, Eric M.
- Nuclear Fusion, Vol. 59, Issue 8
Experimental and synthetic measurements of polarized synchrotron emission from runaway electrons in Alcator C-Mod
journal, July 2019
- Tinguely, R. A.; Hoppe, M.; Granetz, R. S.
- Nuclear Fusion, Vol. 59, Issue 9
Interpretation of runaway electron synchrotron and bremsstrahlung images
text, January 2017
- Hoppe, M.; Embréus, O.; Paz-Soldan, C.
- arXiv
Spatiotemporal evolution of runaway electrons from synchrotron images in Alcator C-Mod
text, January 2018
- Tinguely, R. A.; Granetz, R. S.; Hoppe, M.
- arXiv