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Showing 1–13 of 13 results for author: Chrystal, C

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  1. arXiv:2607.23895  [pdf, ps, other

    physics.plasm-ph

    Spacecraft heat shield study in the DIII-D tokamak

    Authors: Dmitri M. Orlov, Evdokiya G. Kostadinova, Igor Bykov, Dmitri L. Rudakov, Roman Smirnov, Jayson Barr, Gabrielle Bladon, Alessandro Bortolon, Justin Burzachiello, Lane Carlsson, Colin Chrystal, Jason Escalera, Jessica Eskew, Graeson Griffin, Michael O. Hanson, Georg Herdrich, Jeffrey Herfindal, Al Hyatt, Truell Hyde, Charles Lasnier, Claudio Marini, Lorin Matthews, Adam McLean, Christopher A. Mehta, Renato Perillo , et al. (11 additional authors not shown)

    Abstract: We report a new experimental platform developed at the DIII-D National Fusion Facility to investigate carbon ablation and spallation under extreme heat fluxes relevant to fusion plasma-facing components and high-enthalpy atmospheric entry. Carbon samples were exposed to parallel heat fluxes of $30$--$40~\mathrm{MW\,m^{-2}}$ in the scrape-off layer using two complementary approaches: stationary car… ▽ More

    Submitted 28 July, 2026; v1 submitted 26 July, 2026; originally announced July 2026.

  2. arXiv:2607.15484  [pdf, ps, other

    physics.plasm-ph

    Dependence of Momentum Transport on the Dominant Turbulence Regime in the DIII-D Tokamak

    Authors: C. F. B. Zimmermann, C. Chrystal, E. Perez, T. Tala, C. Angioni, S. Haskey, F. Khabanov, R. M. McDermott, G. McKee, A. Salmi, L. Schmitz

    Abstract: Accurate prediction of toroidal plasma rotation is essential for optimizing confinement and stability in future fusion devices. This work investigates turbulent core momentum transport in the DIII-D tokamak across a transition from ion-temperature-gradient (ITG)- to trapped-electron-mode (TEM)-dominated turbulence. A momentum transport framework previously developed for ASDEX Upgrade is applied to… ▽ More

    Submitted 16 July, 2026; originally announced July 2026.

  3. arXiv:2606.17375  [pdf, ps, other

    physics.plasm-ph

    First divertor exposure experiments of a renewable boron pebble aggregate in DIII-D

    Authors: Erick Martinez-Loran, Angelica Ottaviano, Santhosh T. A. Kumar, Gabriel Brewster, Renato Perillo, Dmitry Rudakov, Jun Ren, Jonathan D. Coburn, Robert Kolasinski, Ryan Thomas Hood, Cedric K. W. Tsui, Charles Lasnier, Filippo Scotti, Dihn D. Truong, Gilson Ronchi, Igor Bykov, Colin Chrystal, Žana Popović, Shawn Zamperini, Florian Effenberg, Mathias Groth, Dmitri M. Orlov, Jose Boedo, Eric M Hollmann

    Abstract: Boron pebble aggregate was tested for the first time as a high-heat-flux granular plasma-facing material in a tokamak divertor. Exposures of up to $q_{\parallel} = \SI{80}{\MW\per\m\squared}$ incident heat flux were conducted in the DIII-D tokamak. Single protruding rods of pebble aggregate composed of sintered amorphous boron pebbles bound with carbon binder were mounted in the Divertor Material… ▽ More

    Submitted 15 June, 2026; originally announced June 2026.

  4. arXiv:2606.02768  [pdf

    physics.plasm-ph

    Impurity-driven turbulence opens a pathway to ELM-free operation and enhanced pedestal stability in tokamaks

    Authors: Santanu Banerjee, T. Macwan, A. Bortolon, R. Groebner, K. Barada, R. Maingi, T. Osborne, T. L. Rhodes, C. Chrystal, Z. Yan

    Abstract: Edge-localized modes (ELMs) impose severe transient heat, and particle loads on plasma-facing components, posing a critical challenge for steady-state operation of tokamak fusion reactors. Existing ELM control techniques either rely on externally applied perturbations or operate within narrow parameter windows, raising concerns for reactor scalability. Here we demonstrate that controlled injection… ▽ More

    Submitted 1 June, 2026; originally announced June 2026.

    Comments: 22 pages, 10 figures

  5. arXiv:2603.12494  [pdf

    physics.plasm-ph

    Non-dimensional confinement scaling in similar negative triangularity plasmas on the DIII-D and TCV tokamaks

    Authors: A. Marinoni, C. Chrystal, S. Coda, R. Coosemans, C. Marini, M. Podesta, O. Sauter, M. Agostini, M. E. Austin, E. Belli, J. Candy, M. Gorelenkova, D. Hamm, A. W. Hyatt, M. Knolker, M. La Matina, P. Lunia, S. Mordijck, A. O. Nelson, T. H. Osborne, C. Paz-Soldan, L. Porte, U. Sheikh, F. Scotti, K. E. Thome , et al. (3 additional authors not shown)

    Abstract: Similarity experiments were performed on the DIII-D and TCV tokamaks to explore the scaling of energy confinement in negative triangularity plasmas using non-dimensional variables. Near up-down symmetric plasmas with large top-bottom averaged negative triangularity were created in a lower single null configuration, with the shape of the separatrix being closely matched between the two devices. The… ▽ More

    Submitted 12 March, 2026; originally announced March 2026.

  6. Broadening of the Divertor Heat Flux Profile in High Confinement Tokamak Fusion Plasmas with Edge Pedestals Limited by Turbulence in DIII-D

    Authors: D. R. Ernst, A. Bortolon, C. S. Chang, S. Ku, F. Scotti, H. Q. Wang, Z. Yan, Jie Chen, C. Chrystal, F. Glass, S. Haskey, R. Hood, F. Khabanov, F. Laggner, C. Lasnier, G. R. McKee, T. L. Rhodes, D. Truong, J. Watkins

    Abstract: Multi-machine empirical scaling predicts an extremely narrow heat exhaust layer in future high magnetic field tokamaks, producing high power densities that require mitigation. In the experiments presented, the width of this exhaust layer is nearly doubled using actuators to increase turbulent transport in the plasma edge. This is achieved in low collisionality, high confinement edge pedestals with… ▽ More

    Submitted 5 August, 2024; v1 submitted 29 February, 2024; originally announced March 2024.

    Comments: 8 pages, 11 figures

    Journal ref: Phys. Rev. Lett. 132, 235102 (2024)

  7. arXiv:2402.06789  [pdf

    physics.plasm-ph

    ELM-free Enhanced Dα H-mode with Near Zero NBI Torque Injection in DIII-D Tokamak

    Authors: T. Macwan, K. Barada, J. F. Parisi, R. Groebner, T. L. Rhodes, S. Banerjee, C. Chrystal, Q. Pratt, Z. Yan, H. Wang, L. Zeng, M. E. Austin, N. A. Crocker, W. A. Peebles

    Abstract: Enhanced $D_α$ H-mode (EDA H-mode), an ELM-free H-mode regime, is explored in neutral beam heated, lower single null plasmas with near zero torque injection. This regime exhibits a good energy confinement ($\mathrm{H}_{\mathrm{98y2}}$ $\sim 1$) with $β_N \sim 2$, high density, regime access at low input power, and no ELMs. This paper further presents the time-resolved measurements of electron and… ▽ More

    Submitted 9 February, 2024; originally announced February 2024.

    Comments: 28 pages, 15 figures, 1 table

  8. arXiv:2402.03797  [pdf, ps, other

    physics.plasm-ph

    Saturation of fishbone instability through zonal flows driven by energetic particle transport in tokamak plasmas

    Authors: G. Brochard, C. Liu, X. Wei, W. Heidbrink, Z. Lin, M. V. Falessi, F. Zonca, Z. Qiu, N. Gorelenkov, C. Chrystal, X. Du, J. Bao, A. R. Polevoi, M. Schneider, S. H. Kim, S. D. Pinches, P. Liu, J. H. Nicolau, H. Lütjens, the ISEP group

    Abstract: Gyrokinetic and kinetic-MHD simulations are performed for the fishbone instability in the DIII-D discharge #178631, chosen for validation of first-principles simulations to predict the energetic particle (EP) transport in an ITER prefusion baseline scenario. Fishbone modes are found to generate zonal flows, which dominate the fishbone saturation. The underlying mechanisms of the two-way fishbone-z… ▽ More

    Submitted 6 February, 2024; originally announced February 2024.

  9. arXiv:2309.08687  [pdf, other

    cs.DC physics.plasm-ph

    Speeding up charge exchange recombination spectroscopy analysis in support of NERSC/DIII-D realtime workflow

    Authors: Aarushi Jain, Laurie Stephey, Erik Linsenmayer, Colin Chrystal, Jonathan Dursi, Hannah Ross

    Abstract: We report optimization work made in support of the development of a realtime Superfacility workflow between DIII-D and NERSC. At DIII-D, the ion properties measured by charge exchange recombination (CER) spectroscopy are required inputs for a Superfacility realtime workflow that computes the full plasma kinetic equilibrium. In this workflow, minutes matter since the results must be ready during th… ▽ More

    Submitted 18 September, 2023; v1 submitted 15 September, 2023; originally announced September 2023.

    Comments: 8 pages, 5 figures. Not a preprint- this work was rejected from a conference proceedings, so arXiv will hopefully be the final home Updated to add arXiv link/DOI to header of paper

  10. Simultaneous access to high normalized current, pressure, density, and confinement in strongly-shaped diverted negative triangularity plasmas

    Authors: C. Paz-Soldan, C. Chrystal, P. Lunia, A. O. Nelson, K. E. Thome, M. E. Austin, T. B. Cote, A. W. Hyatt, A. Marinoni, T. H. Osborne, M. Pharr, O. Sauter, F. Scotti, T. M. Wilks, H. S. Wilson

    Abstract: Strongly-shaped diverted negative triangularity (NT) plasmas in the DIII-D tokamak demonstrate simultaneous access to high normalized current, pressure, density, and confinement. NT plasmas are shown to exist across an expansive parameter space compatible with high fusion power production, revealing surprisingly good core stability properties that compare favorably to conventional positive triangu… ▽ More

    Submitted 7 September, 2023; originally announced September 2023.

  11. arXiv:2301.01792  [pdf, other

    physics.plasm-ph

    Saturation of fishbone instability by self-generated zonal flows in tokamak plasmas

    Authors: G. Brochard, C. Liu, X. Wei, W. Heidbrink, Z. Lin, N. Gorelenkov, C. Chrystal, X. Du, J. Bao, A. R. Polevoi, M. Schneider, S. H. Kim, S. D. Pinches, P. Liu, J. H. Nicolau, H. Lütjens

    Abstract: Gyrokinetic simulations of the fishbone instability in DIII-D tokamak plasmas find that self-generated zonal flows can dominate the nonlinear saturation by preventing coherent structures from persisting or drifting in the energetic particle phase space when the mode frequency down-chirps. Results from the simulation with zonal flows agree quantitatively, for the first time, with experimental measu… ▽ More

    Submitted 22 January, 2024; v1 submitted 4 January, 2023; originally announced January 2023.

    Comments: Accepted in Physical Review Letters : https://journals.aps.org/prl/accepted/b0073Yf2Q4c1a78cb8611348c9fa5932b12922776

    Journal ref: Physical Review Letters 2024

  12. arXiv:2004.10907  [pdf, other

    physics.plasm-ph

    The Dependence of the Impurity Transport on the Dominant Turbulent Regime in ELM-y H-mode Discharges

    Authors: Tomas Odstrcil, Nathan Howard, Francesco Sciortino, Colin Chrystal, Chris Holland, Eric Hollmann, George McKee, Kathreen Thome, Teresa Wilks

    Abstract: Laser blow-off injections of aluminum and tungsten have been performed on the DIII-D tokamak to investigate the variation of impurity transport in a set of dedicated ion and electron heating scans with a fixed value of the external torque. The particle transport is quantified via the Bayesian inference method, which, constrained by a combination of a charge exchange recombination spectroscopy, sof… ▽ More

    Submitted 22 April, 2020; originally announced April 2020.

    Comments: submitted to Physics of Plasmas

  13. An optical fiber-taper probe for wafer-scale microphotonic device characterization

    Authors: C. P. Michael, M. Borselli, T. J. Johnson, C. Chrystal, O. Painter

    Abstract: A small depression is created in a straight optical fiber taper to form a local probe suitable for studying closely spaced, planar microphotonic devices. The tension of the "dimpled" taper controls the probe-sample interaction length and the level of noise present during coupling measurements. Practical demonstrations with high-Q silicon microcavities include testing a dense array of undercut mi… ▽ More

    Submitted 9 February, 2007; originally announced February 2007.

    Comments: 8 pages, 5 figures, for high-res version see http://copilot.caltech.edu/publications/index.htm