Discovered: Optimal Magnetic Fields Suppress Instabilities in Tokamak Plasmas
U.S. and Korean scientists show how to find and use beneficial 3-D field perturbations to stabilize dangerous edge-localized modes in plasma.
U.S. and Korean scientists show how to find and use beneficial 3-D field perturbations to stabilize dangerous edge-localized modes in plasma.
Charged particles emanating from Jupiter’s magnetosphere are powered up to create the northern and southern lights on Ganymede, Jupiter’s largest moon.
In magnetic confinement fusion devices known as tokamaks, the maximum operational density limits the efficiency and now we know how this limit may be overcome.
Enabling beams to respond to plasma conditions in real time allows scientists to avoid instabilities and raise performance.
New technique allows the spatiotemporal control of laser intensity, potentially changing the way laser-based accelerators are optimized.
Supercomputer simulations and theoretical analysis shed new light on when and how fast reconnection occurs.
A mysterious mechanism that prevents instabilities may be similar to the process that maintains the Earth's magnetic field.
2-D velocity imaging helps fusion researchers understand the role of ion winds (aka flows) in the boundary of tokamak plasmas.
A non-twisting laser beam moving through magnetized plasma turns into an optical vortex that traps, rotates, and controls microscopic particles, opening new frontiers in imaging.
Just like lightning, fusion plasmas contain odd electromagnetic whistler waves that could control destructive electrons in fusion reactors.
Energetic ions and beam heating cause or calm instabilities, depending on the tokamak’s magnetic field.
First demonstration of high-pressure metastability mapping with ultrafast X-ray diffraction shows objects aren’t as large as previously thought.