Fast-Ion Studies in the Large Plasma Device

University Of California-Irvine, Irvine CA

Investigators

Abstract

This award is made in response to a proposal submitted to and reviewed under the NSF/DoE Partnership in Basic Plasma Science and Engineering joint solicitation NSF 08-589. The award provides funds to support undergraduate participation in the overall research effort, which is being funded separately by the DoE under contract to UC-Irvine (Grant DE-FG02-03ER54720) A test-particle experiment is planned to study the transport of fast ions by microturbulence. Drift-Alfven turbulence will be created by drawing electron current to a biased disk. The fast-ion orbit will traverse the sharp density-gradient region, where the fluctuation amplitude is largest. The pitch angle and energy of the beam will be varied to study the dependence of fast-ion transport on energy. The results will be compared with gyrokinetic simulations of the expected transport. Other experiments with the lithium source will revisit the Doppler-shifted cyclotron resonance with shear Alfven waves at larger wave amplitudes, where nonlinear effects will become important. In addition to these studies, Professor Heidbrink coordinates the fast-ion "campaign" at the Large Plasma Device (LAPD), an NSF-DoE supported user facility. This campaign promotes communication between the fusion, space, and basic plasma physics communities and involves additional scientists in the LAPD program. The project will support one Ph.D. dissertation and several undergraduate projects. The NSF support of undergraduate participation adds a broader educational impact through the early-year training of students by introducing them to scientific research as a possible career path.