Turbulent Transport in Magnetized Plasmas

Description

The book explains how magnetized plasmas self-organize in states of electromagnetic turbulence that transports particles and energy out of the core plasma faster than anticipated by the fusion scientists designing magnetic confinement systems in the 20th century. It describes theory, experiments and simulations in a unified and up-to-date presentation of the issues of achieving nuclear fusion power.

Contents

Basic Concepts and Historical Background
Alfvén and Drift Waves in Plasmas
Mechanisms for Drift Waves
Two-Component Magnetohydrodynamics
Laboratory Experiments for Drift Waves
Magnetohydrodynamics and Magnetic Confinement Geometries
Laboratory Plasma Experiments for Waves and Transport
Turbulence Theory for Drift and Alfvén Waves
Impurity Transport Studies
Coherent Structures in Plasmas
Fluctuating Magnetic Fields and Chaotic Orbits
Toroidal Confinement Systems
Temperature Gradient Driven Instabilities
Electron Temperature Gradient Driven Turbulence
Magnetic Reconnection Instabilities
Ignition Physics in Multiscale Plasma Turbulence
Rotational Instabilities
Transport Simulations with Multiscale Codes for Internal Transport Barrier Formation
Gyrokinetic Simulations of Drift Wave Turbulence

Readership: Graduate students, researchers and academics interested in confinement of plasmas, instabilities, transport and turbulence in plasmas.

Author

Professor Wendell Horton's research at the University of Texas at Austin is devoted to the problems associated with achieving thermonuclear fusion. During 1970–80, the author made numerous trips to Soviet Union and in 1980–90, he was the leader of a US-Japan International Exchange program. In the 1990s, he worked in space physics as an Adjunct Professor at Rice University adding to his experience with plasma transport by turbulence in the solar wind driven plasma trapped by the Earth's magnetic field. The author has published more than 300 peer reviewed articles and received numerous grants for performing original research in plasma turbulent transport and the analysis of data from tokamaks. He has recently received an award from the Institute for Advance Research in Marseille France for 2012–13.