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VERSION:2.0
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PRODID:UW-Madison-Physics-Events
BEGIN:VEVENT
SEQUENCE:2
UID:UW-Physics-Event-9631
DTSTART:20260323T170000Z
DTEND:20260323T180000Z
DTSTAMP:20260520T080239Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260323T142758Z
LOCATION:Engineering Hall 1227
SUMMARY:Statistical equilibrium model for stellarators\, Plasma Physic
 s (Physics/ECE/NE 922) Seminar\, Joshua W. Burby\, University of Texas
  at Austin
DESCRIPTION:In three dimensional toroidal domains without symmetry\, t
 he standard magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) equilibrium model used for magne
 tic confinement fusion does not generally support smooth solutions.  
 This leads to both unphysical singular plasma currents on resonant flu
 x surfaces and non- or slow convergence of numerical approximations un
 der refinement. In this work\, we present an improved equilibrium prin
 ciple derived from a simple statistical model for plasma fluctuations.
  Instead of being static\, we assume that the plasma magnetic field is
  ergodically and rapidly fluctuating relative to the MHD time scale. B
 y averaging the resulting force\, we derive a variational equilibrium 
 problem for the statistical mean magnetic field which depends on fluct
 uation variance. Then\, through asymptotics\, numerical simulations\, 
 and a Grad-Shafranov type argument\, we show that the variational prin
 ciple supports smooth solutions for specific fluctuation statistics ch
 osen to minimally modify the standard equilibrium modeling paradigm. P
 hysically\, this model smooths singular current sheets with a length s
 cale determined by the magnetic field fluctuations.
URL:https://www.physics.wisc.edu/events/?id=9631
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