Finite-Larmor-radius effects on z–pinch stability

1989 ◽  
Vol 41 (3) ◽  
pp. 427-439 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan Scheffel ◽  
Mostafa Faghihi

The effect of finite Larmor radius (FLR) on the stability of m = 1 small-axial-wavelength kinks in a z–pinch with purely poloidal magnetic field is investigated. We use the incompressible FLR MHD model; a collisionless fluid model that consistently includes the relevant FLR terms due to ion gyroviscosity, Hall effect and electron diamagnetism. With FLR terms absent, the Kadomtsev criterion of ideal MHD, 2r dp/dr + m2B2/μ0 ≥ 0 predicts instability for internal modes unless the current density is singular at the centre of the pinch. The same result is obtained in the present model, with FLR terms absent. When the FLR terms are included, a normal-mode analysis of the linearized equations yields the following results. Marginally unstable (ideal) modes are stabilized by gyroviscosity. The Hall term has a damping (but not absolutely stabilizing) effect – in agreement with earlier work. On specifying a constant current and particle density equilibrium, the effect of electron diamagnetism vanishes. For a z–pinch with parameters relevant to the EXTRAP experiment, the m = 1 modes are then fully stabilized over the crosssection for wavelengths λ/a ≤ 1, where a denotes the pinch radius. As a general z–pinch result a critical line-density limit Nmax = 5 × 1018 m–1 is found, above which gyroviscous stabilization near the plasma boundary becomes insufficient. This limit corresponds to about five Larmor radii along the pinch radius. The result holds for wavelengths close to, or smaller than, the pinch radius and for realistic equilibrium profiles. This limit is far below the required limit for a reactor with contained alpha particles, which is in excess of 1020 m–1.

1998 ◽  
Vol 53 (12) ◽  
pp. 937-944 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. K. Sharma ◽  
R. K. Chhajlani

Abstract The Rayleigh-Taylor (R-T) instability of two superposed plasmas, consisting of interacting ions and neutrals, in a horizontal magnetic field is investigated. The usual magnetohydrodynamic equations, including the permeability of the medium, are modified for finite Larmor radius (FLR) corrections. From the relevant linearized perturbation equations, using normal mode analysis, the dispersion relation for the two superposed fluids of different densities is derived. This relation shows that the growth rate unstability is reduced due to FLR corrections, rotation and the presence of neutrals. The horizontal magnetic field plays no role in the R-T instability. The R-T instability is discussed for various simplified configurations. It remains unaffected by the permeability of the porous medium, presence of neutral particles and rotation. The effect of different factors on the growth rate of R-T instability is investigated using numerical analysis. Corresponding graphs are plotted for showing the effect of these factors on the growth of the R-T instability.


1989 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-59 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hans O. Åkerstedt

From the Vlasov-fluid model, a set of approximate stability equations describing the stability of a cylindrically symmetric z–pinch is derived. The equations are derived in the limit of small gyroradius and include kinetic effects such as finite Larmor radius, particle drifts and resonant particles. In the limit of zero Larmor radius and short wavelengths, we apply the equations to the internal m = 0 and m = 1 modes. If the drift term mωD + kVD is neglected in the resonant denominators, we find stability criteria that are more optimistic than the corresponding stability criteria for perpendicular MHD. The neglect of the drift term is, however, not justified for the m = 1 mode, where mωD needs to be retained in order to preserve the property that this approximate model should have the same point of marginal stability as the exact Vlasov-fluid model. Retaining the drift terms, growth rates have been calculated for the m = 1 mode, for a constant-current-density equilibrium and for the Bennett equilibrium. For the Bennett profile, we obtain, when compared with perpendicular MHD, a substantial reduction in growth rate γ/γMHD ≈ 0·2.


2021 ◽  
Vol 16 ◽  
pp. 110-119
Author(s):  
Pardeep Kumar ◽  
Sumit Gupta

The effect of finite Larmor radius of the ions on thermal convection of a plasma is investigated. The case with vertical magnetic field is discussed. Following linear stability theory and normal mode analysis method, the dispersion relation is obtained. It is found that the presence of finite Larmor radius and magnetic field introduces oscillatory modes in the system which were, otherwise, non-existent in their absence. When the instability sets in as stationary convection, finite Larmor radius is found to have a stabilizing effect. Medium permeability has a destabilizing (or stabilizing) effect and the magnetic field has a stabilizing (or destabilizing) effect under certain conditions in the presence of finite Larmor radius effect whereas in the absence of finite Larmor radius effect, the medium permeability and the magnetic field have destabilizing and stabilizing effects, respectively. The sufficient conditions for the non-existence of overstability are also obtained.


2021 ◽  
Vol 16 ◽  
pp. 68-78
Author(s):  
Pardeep Kumar ◽  
Gursharn Jit Singh

The thermal convection of a plasma in porous medium is investigated to include simultaneously the effect of rotation and the finiteness of the ion Larmor radius (FLR) in the presence of a vertical magnetic field. Following linear stability theory and normal mode analysis method, the dispersion relation is obtained. It is found that the presence of a uniform rotation, finite Larmor radius and magnetic field introduces oscillatory modes in the system which were, otherwise, non-existent in their absence. When the instability sets in as stationary convection, finite Larmor radius, rotation, medium permeability and magnetic field are found to have stabilizing (or destabilizing) effects under certain conditions. In the absence of rotation, finite Larmor radius has stabilizing effect on the thermal instability of the system whereas the medium permeability and the magnetic field may have stabilizing or destabilizing effect under certain conditions. The conditions κ<[ε+(1-ε) (ρ_S C_S)/(ρ_0 C)]η and κ<(ε^2 [ε+(1-ε) (ρ_S C_S)/(ρ_0 C)]ν)/(P^2 [εP{√U (x-2)+√(T_(A_1 ) )}^2-2Q_1 ] ) are the sufficient conditions for non-existence of overstability, the violation of which does not necessary involve an occurrence of overstability.


1989 ◽  
Vol 41 (3) ◽  
pp. 493-516 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan Scheffel ◽  
Bo Lehnert

The classical phenomenon of electron plasma oscillations has been investigated from new aspects. The applicability of standard normal-mode analysis of plasma perturbations has been judged from comparisons with exact numerical solutions to the linearized initial-value problem. We consider both Maxwellian and non-Maxwellian velocity distributions. Emphasis is on perturbations for which αλD is of order unity, where α is the wavenumber and λD the Debye distance. The corresponding large-Debye-distance (LDD) damping is found to substantially dominate over Landau damping. This limits the applicability of normal-mode analysis of non-Maxwellian distributions. The physics of LDD damping and its close connection to large-Larmor-radius (LLR) damping is discussed. A major discovery concerns perturbations of plasmas with non-Maxwellian, bump-in-tail, velocity distribution functions f0(ω). For sufficiently large αλD (of order unity) the plasma responds by damping perturbations that are initially unstable in the Landau sense, i.e. with phase velocities initially in the interval where df0/dw > 0. It is found that the plasma responds through shifting the phase velocity above the upper velocity limit of this interval. This is shown to be due to a resonance with the drifting electrons of the bump, and explains the Penrose criterion.


2016 ◽  
Vol 82 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Tassi ◽  
P. L. Sulem ◽  
T. Passot

Reduced models are derived for a strongly magnetized collisionless plasma at scales which are large relative to the electron thermal gyroradius and in two asymptotic regimes. One corresponds to cold ions and the other to far sub-ion scales. By including the electron pressure dynamics, these models improve the Hall reduced magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) and the kinetic Alfvén wave model of Boldyrev et al. (2013 Astrophys. J., vol. 777, 2013, p. 41), respectively. We show that the two models can be obtained either within the gyrofluid formalism of Brizard (Phys. Fluids, vol. 4, 1992, pp. 1213–1228) or as suitable weakly nonlinear limits of the finite Larmor radius (FLR)–Landau fluid model of Sulem and Passot (J. Plasma Phys., vol 81, 2015, 325810103) which extends anisotropic Hall MHD by retaining low-frequency kinetic effects. It is noticeable that, at the far sub-ion scales, the simplifications originating from the gyroaveraging operators in the gyrofluid formalism and leading to subdominant ion velocity and temperature fluctuations, correspond, at the level of the FLR–Landau fluid, to cancellation between hydrodynamic contributions and ion finite Larmor radius corrections. Energy conservation properties of the models are discussed and an explicit example of a closure relation leading to a model with a Hamiltonian structure is provided.


2007 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 373-383 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. Borgogno ◽  
T. Passot ◽  
P. L. Sulem

Abstract. Non-propagating magnetic hole solutions in anisotropic plasmas near the mirror instability threshold are investigated in numerical simulations of a fluid model that incorporates linear Landau damping and finite Larmor radius corrections calculated in the gyrokinetic approximation. This FLR-Landau fluid model reproduces the subcritical mirror bifurcation recently identified on the Vlasov-Maxwell system, both by theory and numerics. Stable magnetic hole solutions that display a polarization different from that of Hall-MHD solitons are indeed obtained slighlty below threshold, while magnetic patterns and spatio-temporal chaos emerge when the system is maintained in a mirror unstable regime.


2009 ◽  
Vol 64 (7-8) ◽  
pp. 455-466 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ramprasad Prajapati ◽  
Raj Kamal Sanghvi ◽  
Rajendra Kumar Chhajlani ◽  

AbstractThe effect of a magnetic field and suspended dust particles on both the Kelvin-Helmholtz (K-H) and the Rayleigh-Taylor (R-T) instability of two superimposed streaming magnetized plasmas is investigated. The magnetized fluids are assumed to be incompressible and flowing on top of each other. The usual magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) equations are considered with suspended dust particles. The basic equations of the problem are linearized and the dispersion relation is obtained using normal mode analysis by applying the appropriate boundary conditions. The general dispersion relation is found to be modified due to the presence of the suspended dust particles and of the magnetic field. The effect of the magnetic field appears in the dispersion relation if three-dimensional perturbations of the system are considered. The general conditions of the K-H instability as well as the R-T instability are derived for the considered medium. The stability of the system for both cases is discussed by applying the Routh-Hurwitz criterion. Numerical analysis is performed to show the effect of various parameters on the growth rates of the K-H and R-T instabilities. Three different cases of the present configurations are considered and the conditions of instability are obtained. It is found that the conditions for the K-H and R-T instabilities depend on the magnetic field, on the suspended dust particles and on the relaxation frequency of the particles. The magnetic field and particle density have stabilizing influence, while the density difference between the fluids has a destabilizing influence on the growth rate of the K-H and R-T configurations.


2014 ◽  
Vol 81 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
P. L. Sulem ◽  
T. Passot

With the aim to develop a tool for simulating turbulence in collisionless magnetized plasmas, fluid models retaining low-frequency kinetic effects such as Landau damping and finite Larmor radius (FLR) corrections are discussed. It turns out that, in the absence of ion-cyclotron resonance, the dispersion and damping of kinetic Alfvén waves at scales as small as a fraction of the ion Larmor radius are accurately reproduced when using fluid estimates of the non-gyrotropic moments, at leading-order within a large-scale asymptotics. Differently, evaluations based on the low-frequency linear kinetic theory are necessary in regimes of large temperature anisotropies, and in particular in the presence of the mirror instability. Combining both descriptions leads to a new Landau fluid model retaining large-scale FLR nonlinearities, while reproducing the linear dynamics of low-frequency modes at the sub-ionic scales.


2018 ◽  
Vol 84 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
S. S. Cerri

We consider the one-dimensional equilibrium problem of a shear-flow boundary layer within an ‘extended-fluid model’ of a plasma that includes the Hall and the electron pressure terms in Ohm’s law, as well as dynamic equations for anisotropic pressure for each species and first-order finite-Larmor-radius (FLR) corrections to the ion dynamics. We provide a generalized version of the analytic expressions for the equilibrium configuration given in Cerri et al., (Phys. Plasmas, vol. 20 (11), 2013, 112112), highlighting their intrinsic asymmetry due to the relative orientation of the magnetic field $\boldsymbol{B}$, $\boldsymbol{b}=\boldsymbol{B}/|\boldsymbol{B}|$, and the fluid vorticity $\unicode[STIX]{x1D74E}=\unicode[STIX]{x1D735}\times \boldsymbol{u}$ (‘$\unicode[STIX]{x1D74E}\boldsymbol{b}$ asymmetry’). Finally, we show that FLR effects can modify the Chapman–Ferraro current layer at the flank magnetopause in a way that is consistent with the observed structure reported by Haaland et al., (J. Geophys. Res. (Space Phys.), vol. 119, 2014, pp. 9019–9037). In particular, we are able to qualitatively reproduce the following key features: (i) the dusk–dawn asymmetry of the current layer, (ii) a double-peak feature in the current profiles and (iii) adjacent current sheets having thicknesses of several ion Larmor radii and with different current directions.


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