The strong, sharp flow structures that are seen frequently in tokamak cores, and large amplitude spontaneous global toroidal rotation are both surprising in light of current theories where toroidal flow evolution is dominantly diffusive. Mechanisms for spontaneously generating strong poloidal shear flows have been extensively investigated, but these processes were thought not to apply to toroidal flows. We confirm, however, that there is a regime with near-zero toroidal momentum diffusivity, where toroidal flow structures are spontaneously generated, as shown in earlier global gyrokinetic simulations. This allows strong rotation with negligible applied external torque, and the regime where this occurs is also favourable for strong turbulence stabilisation by rotation. The transition to low momentum diffusivity occurs for tight aspect ratio, low safety factor and at low levels of heat flux, in agreement with a simple zero-dimensional model for the flow–turbulence interaction.

We present a complete analysis of all wave modes in a cold pair plasma, significantly extending standard textbook treatments. Instead of identifying the maximal number of two propagating waves at fixed frequency $\unicode[STIX]{x1D714}$, we introduce a unique labelling of all 5 mode pairs described by the general dispersion relation $\unicode[STIX]{x1D714}(k)$, starting from their natural ordering at small wavenumber $k$. There, the 5 pairs start off as Alfvén (A), fast magnetosonic (F), modified electrostatic (M) and electromagnetic O and X branches, and each $\unicode[STIX]{x1D714}(k)$ branch smoothly connects to large wavenumber resonances or limits. For cold pair plasmas, these 5 branches show avoided crossings, which become true crossings at exactly parallel or perpendicular orientation. Only for those orientations, we find a changed connectivity between small and large wavenumber behaviour. Analysing phase and group diagrams for all 5 wave modes, distinctly different from the Clemmow–Mullaly–Allis representation, reveals the true anisotropy of the A, M and O branches.

Magnetic helicity is a fundamental quantity of magnetohydrodynamics that carries topological information about the magnetic field. By ‘topological information’, we usually refer to the linkage of magnetic field lines. For domains that are not simply connected, however, helicity also depends on the topology of the domain. In this paper we expand the standard definition of magnetic helicity in simply connected domains to multiply connected domains in $\mathbb{R}^{3}$ of arbitrary topology. We also discuss how using the classic Biot–Savart operator simplifies the expression for helicity and how domain topology affects the physical interpretation of helicity.

Magnetic helicity flux gives information about the topology of a magnetic field passing through a boundary. In solar physics applications, this boundary is the photosphere and magnetic helicity flux has become an important quantity in analysing magnetic fields emerging into the solar atmosphere. In this work we investigate the evolution of magnetic helicity flux in magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations of solar flux emergence. We consider emerging magnetic fields with different topologies and investigate how the magnetic helicity flux patterns correspond to the dynamics of emergence. To investigate how the helicity input is connected to the emergence process, we consider two forms of the helicity flux. The first is the standard form giving topological information weighted by magnetic flux. The second form represents the net winding and can be interpreted as the standard helicity flux less the magnetic flux. Both quantities provide important and distinct information about the structure of the emerging field and these quantities differ significantly for mixed sign helicity fields. A novel aspect of this study is that we account for the varying morphology of the photosphere due to the motion of the dense plasma lifted into the chromosphere. Our results will prove useful for the interpretation of magnetic helicity flux maps in solar observations.

These lecture notes were presented by Allan N. Kaufman in his graduate plasma theory course and a follow-on special topics course (Physics 242A, B, C and Physics 250 at the University of California Berkeley). The notes follow the order of the lectures. The equations and derivations are as Kaufman presented, but the text is a reconstruction of Kaufman’s discussion and commentary. The notes were transcribed by Bruce I. Cohen in 1971 and 1972, and word processed, edited and illustrations added by Cohen in 2017 and 2018. The series of lectures is divided into four major parts: (i) collisionless Vlasov plasmas (linear theory of waves and instabilities with and without an applied magnetic field, Vlasov–Poisson and Vlasov–Maxwell systems, Wentzel–Kramers–Brillouin–Jeffreys (WKBJ) eikonal theory of wave propagation); (ii) nonlinear Vlasov plasmas and miscellaneous topics (the plasma dispersion function, singular solutions of the Vlasov–Poisson system, pulse-response solutions for initial-value problems, Gardner’s stability theorem, gyroresonant effects, nonlinear waves, particle trapping in waves, quasilinear theory, nonlinear three-wave interactions); (iii) plasma collisional and discreteness phenomena (test-particle theory of dynamic friction and wave emission, classical resistivity, extension of test-particle theory to many-particle phenomena and the derivation of the Boltzmann and Lenard–Balescu equations, the Fokker–Planck collision operator, a general scattering theory, nonlinear Landau damping, radiation transport and Dupree’s theory of clumps); (iv) non-uniform plasmas (adiabatic invariance, guiding-centre drifts, hydromagnetic theory, introduction to drift-wave stability theory).

In toroidal magnetic confinement devices, such as tokamaks and stellarators, neoclassical transport is usually an order of magnitude larger than its classical counterpart. However, when a high-collisionality species is present in a stellarator optimized for low Pfirsch–Schlüter current, its classical transport can be comparable to the neoclassical transport. In this letter, we compare neoclassical and classical fluxes and transport coefficients calculated for Wendelstein 7-X (W7-X) and Large Helical Device (LHD) cases. In W7-X, we find that the classical transport of a collisional impurity is comparable to the neoclassical transport for all radii, while it is negligible in the LHD cases, except in the vicinity of radii where the neoclassical transport changes sign. In the LHD case, electrostatic potential variations on the flux surface significantly enhance the neoclassical impurity transport, while the classical transport is largely insensitive to this effect in the cases studied.

These lecture notes are based on a tutorial given in 2017 at a plasma physics winter school in Les Houches. Their aim is to provide a self-contained graduate-student level introduction to the theory and modelling of the dynamo effect in turbulent fluids and plasmas, blended with a review of current research in the field. The primary focus is on the physical and mathematical concepts underlying different (turbulent) branches of dynamo theory, with some astrophysical, geophysical and experimental contexts disseminated throughout the document. The text begins with an introduction to the rationale, observational and historical roots of the subject, and to the basic concepts of magnetohydrodynamics relevant to dynamo theory. The next two sections discuss the fundamental phenomenological and mathematical aspects of (linear and nonlinear) small- and large-scale magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) dynamos. These sections are complemented by an overview of a selection of current active research topics in the field, including the numerical modelling of the geo- and solar dynamos, shear dynamos driven by turbulence with zero net helicity and MHD-instability-driven dynamos such as the magnetorotational dynamo. The difficult problem of a unified, self-consistent statistical treatment of small- and large-scale dynamos at large magnetic Reynolds numbers is also discussed throughout the text. Finally, an excursion is made into the relatively new but increasingly popular realm of magnetic-field generation in weakly collisional plasmas. A short discussion of the outlook and challenges for the future of the field concludes the presentation.

In a magnetized, collisionless plasma, the magnetic moment of the constituent particles is an adiabatic invariant. An increase in the magnetic-field strength in such a plasma thus leads to an increase in the thermal pressure perpendicular to the field lines. Above a $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FD}$-dependent threshold (where $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FD}$ is the ratio of thermal to magnetic pressure), this pressure anisotropy drives the mirror instability, producing strong distortions in the field lines on ion-Larmor scales. The impact of this instability on magnetic reconnection is investigated using a simple analytical model for the formation of a current sheet (CS) and the associated production of pressure anisotropy. The difficulty in maintaining an isotropic, Maxwellian particle distribution during the formation and subsequent thinning of a CS in a collisionless plasma, coupled with the low threshold for the mirror instability in a high-$\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FD}$ plasma, imply that the geometry of reconnecting magnetic fields can differ radically from the standard Harris-sheet profile often used in simulations of collisionless reconnection. As a result, depending on the rate of CS formation and the initial CS thickness, tearing modes whose growth rates and wavenumbers are boosted by this difference may disrupt the mirror-infested CS before standard tearing modes can develop. A quantitative theory is developed to illustrate this process, which may find application in the tearing-mediated disruption of kinetic magnetorotational ‘channel’ modes.

The Godbillon–Vey invariant occurs in homology theory, and algebraic topology, when conditions for a co-dimension 1, foliation of a three-dimensional manifold are satisfied. The magnetic Godbillon–Vey helicity invariant in magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) is a higher-order helicity invariant that occurs for flows in which the magnetic helicity density $h_{m}=\boldsymbol{A}\boldsymbol{\cdot }\boldsymbol{B}=\boldsymbol{A}\boldsymbol{\cdot }(\unicode[STIX]{x1D735}\times \boldsymbol{A})=0$, where $\boldsymbol{A}$ is the magnetic vector potential and $\boldsymbol{B}$ is the magnetic induction. This paper obtains evolution equations for the magnetic Godbillon–Vey field $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6C8}=\boldsymbol{A}\times \boldsymbol{B}/|\boldsymbol{A}|^{2}$ and the Godbillon–Vey helicity density $h_{\text{gv}}=\unicode[STIX]{x1D6C8}\boldsymbol{\cdot }(\unicode[STIX]{x1D735}\times \unicode[STIX]{x1D6C8})$ in general MHD flows in which either $h_{m}=0$ or $h_{m}\neq 0$. A conservation law for $h_{\text{gv}}$ occurs in flows for which $h_{m}=0$. For $h_{m}\neq 0$ the evolution equation for $h_{\text{gv}}$ contains a source term in which $h_{m}$ is coupled to $h_{\text{gv}}$ via the shear tensor of the background flow. The transport equation for $h_{\text{gv}}$ also depends on the electric field potential $\unicode[STIX]{x1D713}$, which is related to the gauge for $\boldsymbol{A}$, which takes its simplest form for the advected $\boldsymbol{A}$ gauge in which $\unicode[STIX]{x1D713}=\boldsymbol{A}\boldsymbol{\cdot }\boldsymbol{u}$ where $\boldsymbol{u}$ is the fluid velocity. An application of the Godbillon–Vey magnetic helicity to nonlinear force-free magnetic fields used in solar physics is investigated. The possible uses of the Godbillon–Vey helicity in zero helicity flows in ideal fluid mechanics, and in zero helicity Lagrangian kinematics of three-dimensional advection, are discussed.

We present a detailed guide to advanced collisionless fluid models that incorporate kinetic effects into the fluid framework, and that are much closer to the collisionless kinetic description than traditional magnetohydrodynamics. Such fluid models are directly applicable to modelling the turbulent evolution of a vast array of astrophysical plasmas, such as the solar corona and the solar wind, the interstellar medium, as well as accretion disks and galaxy clusters. The text can be viewed as a detailed guide to Landau fluid models and it is divided into two parts. Part 1 is dedicated to fluid models that are obtained by closing the fluid hierarchy with simple (non-Landau fluid) closures. Part 2 is dedicated to Landau fluid closures. Here in Part 1, we discuss the fluid model of Chew–Goldberger–Low (CGL) in great detail, together with fluid models that contain dispersive effects introduced by the Hall term and by the finite Larmor radius corrections to the pressure tensor. We consider dispersive effects introduced by the non-gyrotropic heat flux vectors. We investigate the parallel and oblique firehose instability, and show that the non-gyrotropic heat flux strongly influences the maximum growth rate of these instabilities. Furthermore, we discuss fluid models that contain evolution equations for the gyrotropic heat flux fluctuations and that are closed at the fourth-moment level by prescribing a specific form for the distribution function. For the bi-Maxwellian distribution, such a closure is known as the ‘normal’ closure. We also discuss a fluid closure for the bi-kappa distribution. Finally, by considering one-dimensional Maxwellian fluid closures at higher-order moments, we show that such fluid models are always unstable. The last possible non Landau fluid closure is therefore the ‘normal’ closure, and beyond the fourth-order moment, Landau fluid closures are required.

A one-dimensional particle-in-cell/Monte Carlo (PIC/MCC) model of low-pressure capacitive discharges with a large discharge gap is presented in the paper. The results from the model are for the dependence of the plasma parameters on the pressure and on the discharge radius. The study is directed to the heating mechanisms in the discharge. It is shown that the ohmic (Joule) heating in the plasma bulk could act simultaneously with the stochastic heating in the region of the plasma–sheath boundary. In confirmation of the results of the model, experimental results showing qualitatively the same behaviour are presented.

We study the damping of collisionless Alfvénic turbulence in a strongly magnetised plasma by two mechanisms: stochastic heating (whose efficiency depends on the local turbulence amplitude $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FF}z_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D706}}$) and linear Landau damping (whose efficiency is independent of $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FF}z_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D706}}$), describing in detail how they affect and are affected by intermittency. The overall efficiency of linear Landau damping is not affected by intermittency in critically balanced turbulence, while stochastic heating is much more efficient in the presence of intermittent turbulence. Moreover, stochastic heating leads to a drop in the scale-dependent kurtosis over a narrow range of scales around the ion gyroscale.

Stellarators are a promising route to steady-state fusion power. However, to achieve the required confinement, the magnetic geometry must be highly optimized. This optimization requires navigating high-dimensional spaces, often necessitating the use of gradient-based methods. The gradient of the neoclassical fluxes is expensive to compute with classical methods, requiring $O(N)$ flux computations, where $N$ is the number of parameters. To reduce the cost of the gradient computation, we present an adjoint method for computing the derivatives of moments of the neoclassical distribution function for stellarator optimization. The linear adjoint method allows derivatives of quantities which depend on solutions of a linear system, such as moments of the distribution function, to be computed with respect to many parameters from the solution of only two linear systems. This reduces the cost of computing the gradient to the point that the finite-collisionality neoclassical fluxes can be used within an optimization loop. With the neoclassical adjoint method, we compute solutions of the drift kinetic equation and an adjoint drift kinetic equation to obtain derivatives of neoclassical quantities with respect to geometric parameters. When the number of parameters in the derivative is large ($O(10^{2})$), this adjoint method provides up to a factor of 200 reduction in cost. We demonstrate adjoint-based optimization of the field strength to obtain minimal bootstrap current on a surface. With adjoint-based derivatives, we also compute the local sensitivity to magnetic perturbations on a flux surface and identify regions where tight tolerances on error fields are required for control of the bootstrap current or radial transport. Furthermore, the solve for the ambipolar electric field is accelerated using a Newton method with derivatives obtained from the adjoint method.

A two-field Hamiltonian gyrofluid model for kinetic Alfvén waves retaining ion finite Larmor radius corrections, parallel magnetic field fluctuations and electron inertia, is used to study turbulent cascades from the magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) to the sub-ion scales. Special attention is paid to the case of imbalance between waves propagating along or opposite to the ambient magnetic field. For weak turbulence in the absence of electron inertia, kinetic equations for the spectral density of the conserved quantities (total energy and generalized cross-helicity) are obtained. They provide a global description, matching between the regimes of reduced MHD at large scales and electron reduced MHD at small scales, previously considered in the literature. In the limit of ultra-local interactions, Leith-type nonlinear diffusion equations in the Fourier space are derived and heuristically extended to the strong turbulence regime by modifying the transfer time appropriately. Relations with existing phenomenological models for imbalanced MHD and balanced sub-ion turbulence are discussed. It turns out that in the presence of dispersive effects, the dynamics is sensitive on the way turbulence is maintained in a steady state. Furthermore, the total energy spectrum at sub-ion scales becomes steeper as the generalized cross-helicity flux is increased.

In Part 2 of our guide to collisionless fluid models, we concentrate on Landau fluid closures. These closures were pioneered by Hammett and Perkins and allow for the rigorous incorporation of collisionless Landau damping into a fluid framework. It is Landau damping that sharply separates traditional fluid models and collisionless kinetic theory, and is the main reason why the usual fluid models do not converge to the kinetic description, even in the long-wavelength low-frequency limit. We start with a brief introduction to kinetic theory, where we discuss in detail the plasma dispersion function $Z(\unicode[STIX]{x1D701})$, and the associated plasma response function $R(\unicode[STIX]{x1D701})=1+\unicode[STIX]{x1D701}Z(\unicode[STIX]{x1D701})=-Z^{\prime }(\unicode[STIX]{x1D701})/2$. We then consider a one-dimensional (1-D) (electrostatic) geometry and make a significant effort to map all possible Landau fluid closures that can be constructed at the fourth-order moment level. These closures for parallel moments have general validity from the largest astrophysical scales down to the Debye length, and we verify their validity by considering examples of the (proton and electron) Landau damping of the ion-acoustic mode, and the electron Landau damping of the Langmuir mode. We proceed by considering 1-D closures at higher-order moments than the fourth order, and as was concluded in Part 1, this is not possible without Landau fluid closures. We show that it is possible to reproduce linear Landau damping in the fluid framework to any desired precision, thus showing the convergence of the fluid and collisionless kinetic descriptions. We then consider a 3-D (electromagnetic) geometry in the gyrotropic (long-wavelength low-frequency) limit and map all closures that are available at the fourth-order moment level. In appendix A, we provide comprehensive tables with Padé approximants of $R(\unicode[STIX]{x1D701})$ up to the eighth-pole order, with many given in an analytic form.

In this paper, the dynamics of electrons emitted by a spherical object when the total charge of the system is constant is studied in detail. In particular, the condition for which the total electron charge presents damped oscillations is deduced rigorously by considering a perturbation with respect to the steady-state solution. The results obtained can be of utility in simulating the expansion of a spherical plasma by separating the ion and electron time scales.

The formation of zonal flows from inhomogeneous drift-wave (DW) turbulence is often described using statistical theories derived within the quasilinear approximation. However, this approximation neglects wave–wave collisions. Hence, some important effects such as the Batchelor–Kraichnan inverse-energy cascade are not captured within this approach. Here we derive a wave kinetic equation that includes a DW collision operator in the presence of zonal flows. Our derivation makes use of the Weyl calculus, the quasinormal statistical closure and the geometrical-optics approximation. The obtained model conserves both the total enstrophy and energy of the system. The derived DW collision operator breaks down at the Rayleigh–Kuo threshold. This threshold is missed by homogeneous-turbulence theory but expected from a full-wave quasilinear analysis. In the future, this theory might help better understand the interactions between drift waves and zonal flows, including the validity domain of the quasilinear approximation that is commonly used in the literature.

The Van Kampen normal-mode method is applied in a comprehensive study of the linear wave perturbations of a homogeneous, magnetized and finite-temperature plasma, described by the collisionless Vlasov–Maxwell system in its non-relativistic version. The analysis considers a stable, Maxwellian background, but is otherwise completely general in that it allows for arbitrary wave propagation direction relative to the equilibrium magnetic field, multiple plasma species and general polarization states of the perturbed electromagnetic fields. A convenient formulation is introduced whereby the generator of the time advance is a Hermitian operator, analogous to the Hamiltonian in the Schrödinger equation of quantum mechanics. This guarantees a real frequency spectrum and complete bases of normal modes. Expansions in these normal-mode bases yield immediately the solutions of initial-value problems for general initial conditions. With standard initial conditions and propagation direction parallel to the equilibrium magnetic field, all the familiar results obtained following Landau’s Laplace transform approach are recovered. Considering such parallel propagation, the present work shows also explicitly and provides an example of how to construct special initial conditions that result in different, damped but otherwise arbitrarily prescribed time variations of the macroscopic variables. The known dispersion relations for perpendicular propagation are also recovered.

Integrated modelling of electron runaway requires computationally expensive kinetic models that are self-consistently coupled to the evolution of the background plasma parameters. The computational expense can be reduced by using parameterized runaway generation rates rather than solving the full kinetic problem. However, currently available generation rates neglect several important effects; in particular, they are not valid in the presence of partially ionized impurities. In this work, we construct a multilayer neural network for the Dreicer runaway generation rate which is trained on data obtained from kinetic simulations performed for a wide range of plasma parameters and impurities. The neural network accurately reproduces the Dreicer runaway generation rate obtained by the kinetic solver. By implementing it in a fluid runaway-electron modelling tool, we show that the improved generation rates lead to significant differences in the self-consistent runaway dynamics as compared to the results using the previously available formulas for the runaway generation rate.

The model of the global gyrokinetic particle-in-cell code ORB5 has been extended for the study of pair plasmas. This has been done by including the physics of the Debye shielding, by including the electron polarization density and by retaining the effects of the electron finite Larmor radius. This model is verified against previous numerical results for the cyclone base case tokamak scenario in deuterium plasmas, and for local pair plasma simulations. The linear dynamics of temperature-gradient driven instabilities and geodesic acoustic modes is investigated. Mass dependencies for different Debye lengths are studied.