Avalanches driven by pressure gradients in a magnetized plasma

Van Compernolle, B.; Morales, G. J.

doi:10.1063/1.5001321

Title: Avalanches driven by pressure gradients in a magnetized plasma

Journal Article · 07 November 2017 · Physics of Plasmas

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5001321 · OSTI ID:1524581

^[1]; Morales, G. J. ^[1]

Univ. of California, Los Angeles, CA (United States). Dept. of Physics

The results are presented for a basic heat transport experiment involving an off-axis heat source in which avalanche events occur. The configuration consists of a long, hollow, cylindrical region of elevated electron temperature embedded in a colder plasma, and far from the device walls [Van Compernolle et al. Phys. Rev. E 91, 031102(R) (2015)]. The avalanche events are identified as sudden rearrangements of the pressure profile following the growth of fluctuations from ambient noise. The intermittent collapses of the plasma pressure profile are associated with unstable drift-Alfvén waves and exhibit both radial and poloidal dynamics. After each collapse, the plasma enters a quiescent phase in which the pressure profile slowly recovers and steepens until a threshold is exceeded, and the process repeats. The use of reference probes as time markers allows for the visualization of the 2D spatio-temporal evolution of the avalanche events. Avalanches are observed only for a limited combination of heating powers and magnetic fields. At higher heating powers, the system transits from the avalanche regime into a regime dominated by sustained drift-Alfvén wave activity. Here, this manuscript focuses on new results that illustrate the individual contributions to the avalanche process from density and temperature gradients in the presence of zero-order, sheared flows.

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Research Organization:: Univ. of California, Los Angeles, CA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE

Grant/Contract Number:: FC02-07ER54918

OSTI ID:: 1524581

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1407835

Journal Information:: Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 24, Issue 11; ISSN 1070-664X

Publisher:: American Institute of Physics (AIP)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Cited by: 13 works

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