Plasma diagnosis with Alfvén waves and reflectometry

• Grant number: 11/22239-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• Effective date (Start): March 01, 2012
• Effective date (End): February 28, 2013
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Physics - Physics of Fluids, Plasma Physics and Electrical Discharge
• Principal Investigator: Ricardo Magnus Osório Galvão
• Grantee: Cassio Henrique dos Santos Amador
• Host Institution: Instituto de Física (IF). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

An alternative method to obtain the safety factor and the effective mass of a tokamak plasma has been developed at the Laboratory of Plasma Physics, in IFUSP. This method uses the heating of certain regions of the plasma with Alfvén waves, and the detection of these regions by reflectometry diagnostic. This project plans to install new components of this diagnosis, conduct further experiments and perform simulations in two dimensions of the system studied, in order to better understand the effect of this method on the fluctuations of the plasma, making it possible to establish and consolidate this method to implement it as a future diagnostic control. The first experiments will be performed in TCABR (IFUSP), and later in JET (United Kingdom), where it will be possible to test it for the detection of high-density plasma. This project is within the PRONEX project 2011/50773-0. (AU)