Turbulent Motions in Magnetically Confined Plasmas

Controlled fusion seeks to harness the power of the Sun on Earth. The aim is to confine hot plasma in a toroidal device known as a tokamak so that fusion reactions can occur and the process can become self-sustaining. 

However, various plasma phenomena cause instabilities and confinement losses. The stability problem is most severe at the plasma edge, causing hot, dense filamentary structures to strike the material surfaces of the fusion device, thus potentially inflicting damage and shortening the lifetime of the device. The figure below depicts the ejection of a single filament from the core plasma and its subsequent fast radial motion towards the wall of the fusion device. 

The aim of the project is to study the underlying mechanism behind the formation of such filaments, through a combination of analytical and computational approaches.