Title:

Wave Modes for Current Drive in Magnetic Confinement Fusion

Using toroidal currents to induce poloidal magnetic fields in tokamak devices is a necessary step to stabilizing the plasma long enough to ignite a controlled thermonuclear fusion reaction. Using waves to induce these currents is a promising alternative to other methods (such as neutral beam injection). As a first step towards understanding how waves can be used to drive currents, the author first motivates a simplified, zero-temperature model of plasma wave propagation to connect many distinct wave phenomena. This model, where each plasma species is stationary but particles are free to resonate in place, can be used to re-derive the Alfven wave, Langmuir-Tonks wave, Ion Cyclotron wave, and other “household” plasma physics wave modes. Rather than deriving each of these plasma waves independently, the author demonstrates that each of these plasma waves fills a niche in a parameter space composed of the ratios of different characteristic plasma frequencies, and are thus intimately connected. Future work will study how these plasma waves can be used to drive currents in a plasma without any physical contact to that plasma, driving us closer to the collective goal of net-power fusion.

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