Plasma Dynamics
The division Plasma Dynamics (PD) develops an understanding of the small-scale dynamical processes in plasmas that often determine the large-scale parameters of the plasma, such as efficiency or material load. This enables predictions to be made about the feasibility and economic viability of a future fusion reactor.
In plasmas, large-scale parameters are determined primarily by the properties of the underlying smaller-scale dynamical processes. Understanding these processes is therefore crucial for the advancement of fusion research. The Plasma Dynamics division investigates all regions of the toroidal fusion plasma: the central confinement region, the plasma edge and the so-called scrape-off-layer, which is located between the confined plasma and the first wall of the fusion reactor.
Some of the central questions that the Plasma Dynamics department is working on:
- How can the dynamics of the current distribution at high pressures in the plasma center be described?
- How do the transport properties of the plasma edge come about in plasma regimes with increased confinement quality?
- Which processes determine the energy transport through individual filaments (small-scale structures at the plasma edge) to the wall of the plasma vessel? This question is of great importance for future power plants, as their walls have to withstand considerable energy and particle fluxes.
To gain a deeper understanding of plasma dynamics, the department conducts intensive research on the ASDEX Upgrade tokamak at the institute's Garching site and also develops and operates diagnostics for it. The researchers also verify new findings by comparing them with numerical simulations from the Institute's theory departments.
International collaborations are of central importance: on the one hand, results from other experiments provide further insights into parameter dependencies, while on the other hand, findings from ASDEX Upgrade are critically reviewed with results from larger and smaller experiments. In this context, there are collaborations for the evaluation of measurements from JET, DIII-D, TCV, MAST-U, Alcator C-Mod and others. This breadth ensures that the predictions for future fusion reactors such as ITER and DEMO are applicable and that the design and development of these devices can be supported.