Institute for Fusion Theory and Simulation, Zhejiang University

IFTS Intensive Course on Advanced Plasma Physics-Spring 2009 Kinetic theory of meso- and micro-scale fluctuations in magnetic fusion plasmas Announcement

Lecture Plan and Teaching Material

Abstract: Prerequisite of the course is a preliminary knowledge of general plasma physics, fluid description of magnetized plasmas and kinetic theory , including linear gyrokinetic equations. These topics will be briefly reviewed at the beginning of the course.
 
General Remark: Part of the material contained in these lectures is unpublished and subject of active research. If you are interested in reproducing it, please quote the source and inform me of the use you intend to do of it. Please, inform me as well whether you are interested in undertaking research activities in the areas marked with RP (Research Projects), since some of these are research projects of IFTS students. Since these Lectures have been given at IFTS in Hangzhou for the first time, they may contain typos or inaccuracies: please, send me your remarks or suggestions to fulvio.zonca@enea.it.
 

Main areas that will be explored are:
i) Magnetic field representation, flux coordinates in toroidal geometry, ballooning representation (Lecture 1)
ii) MHD and Gyrokinetic equations (Lecture 1)
iii) Continuous and discrete spectrum: Fourier vs. initial value problem (Lecture 2)
iv) Shear Alfvén Wave spectrum in toroidal geometry (Lecture 3)
v) The general fishbone-like dispersion relation (Lecture 4)
vi) Relationship of low frequency shear Alfvén spectrum to MHD and microturbulence (Lecture 5)
vii) Extension to nonlinear dynamics (Lecture 6)
Nonlinear dynamics and complex behaviors in magnetized plasmas of fusion interest (Closing Seminar)

Sources: Large portions of these lecture notes are based on Lectures I gave at the First GOTiT course on gyrokinetic theory and numerics for the Goal Oriented Training in Theory Project, 3-14 November 2008, IPP - Garching, Germany. Material is also taken from F. Zonca, L. Chen and R.B. White, in Theory of Fusion Plasmas, pp. 3-12, J.W. Connor, O. Sauter and E. Sindoni (Eds.), Società Italiana di Fisica, Bologna, (2004) and from lectures given at The 4th Workshop on Nonlinear Plasma Sciences and International School on Plasma Turbulence and Transport, Hangzhou, China, August 30 - September 3 (2005).
 
Important reading material: Prof. Liu Chen Lecture notes given at the Hefei 2008 Summer School and at Beijing University, September 2008.
 
Lecture Notes: Available in electronic form following the hyperlinks above. At the end of each lecture, a list of specific reading material is given explicitly. Should you have difficulty in finding literatures and papers, please contact me at fulvio.zonca@enea.it.
 
Exercises and Research Projects: In the lectures, both Exercises (E) and Research Projects (RP) of various difficulty levels are suggested.
 

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