Plasma Physics Seminar: Confining plasma using hidden symmetry

Wednesday, February 19, 2020
1:00 p.m.
3150 Physical Sciences Complex, UMD College Park
Taylor Prendergast
301 405 4951
tprender@umd.edu

Speaker:  Matt Landreman, UMCP

Title: 
Confining plasma using hidden symmetry

Abstract:

Magnetic fields can possess an unusual symmetry called quasisymmetry, which allows steady and stable confinement of plasma. While this symmetry is not readily apparent in the plasma geometry or magnetic field vector, the plasma’s constituent particles behave as if they were in a rotationally symmetric system. Quasisymmetric fields have application both for confining high-temperature plasmas relevant to fusion energy, and as a new kind of magnetic trap for basic physics studies. A few quasisymmetric plasma configurations have been found numerically, and an exciting set of quasisymmetric experiments are being designed and built today. Yet, there are many open questions, such as how many quasisymmetric configurations are possible? How does quasisymmetry affect plasma turbulence? How accurately can quasisymmetric plasmas be realized with practical magnets? New methods to address these questions have recently become available, such as a method to compute quasisymmetric configurations that is ~10^7x faster than the previous approach.  


POC:

Bill Dorland

bdorland@umd.edu

Audience: Faculty 

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