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Symmetry
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Symmetry in Physics of Plasma Technologies
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Symmetry in Physics of Plasma Technologies

A special issue of Symmetry (ISSN 2073-8994). This special issue belongs to the section "Physics".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 July 2022) | Viewed by 9284

Special Issue Editor

Prof. Alexander Kukushkin

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Kurchatov Center for Thermonuclear Energy and Plasma Technologies, National Research Center "Kurchatov Institute", Moscow, Russia
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Symmetry properties not only underlie fundamental physical laws but also turn out to be key principles in the implementation of the use of these laws for practical purposes. This Special Issue of Symmetry aims to highlight the various aspects of symmetry in plasma physics in its various technological applications. The proposed range of problems covers a wide range of areas of applied plasma physics.

The first group is associated with controlled thermonuclear fusion (CTF). It is well known that the symmetry properties of magnetic configurations underlie the success of magnetic confinement of hot plasma. This should include, first of all, toroidal systems (tokamaks, stellarators, reverse field pinches), where there is helicity of the magnetic field lines (and the associated rotational transform). In systems of inertial (laser thermonuclear fusion) and magneto-inertial (fast pinches, plasma focus) confinement of hot plasma, the target symmetry and the symmetry of its compression—respectively, by a light pulse or a plasma current sheath—are critically important. The confinement of thermonuclear plasma is significantly affected by the interaction of plasma with plasma facing components (PFC), both in terms of their optimal location and in terms of the kinetics of plasma near the PFC. Recall that the tokamak-based CTF project, ITER, is the largest international scientific project in history.

Another important application of plasma is plasma accelerators, the success of which (first of all, the stationary plasma thruster and, in general, Hall thrusters) critically depends on the role of symmetry properties in controlling the plasma flow.

The widespread use of plasma radiation sources (for example, for X-ray lithography) is based on the possibility of optimizing the geometric and plasma physical parameters of pulsed radiation sources. The problem of converting thermal energy into electrical energy in plasma systems (for example, the interaction of plasma with PFC in MHD converters) remains urgent. Finally, let us mention a very broad area of technologies based on plasma chemistry and plasma processing of materials.

We are soliciting contributions (research and review articles) in all of these areas, while encouraging the emphasis on exploiting fundamental aspects of plasma physics, including symmetry:

  • magnetic confinement of plasma;
  • inertial and magneto-inertial compression of plasma;
  • plasma facing components;
  • acceleration of plasma;
  • plasma thrusters;
  • plasma radiation sources;
  • plasma microwave electronics;
  • plasma converters of heat to electricity;
  • plasma processing of materials;
  • plasma chemistry

Prof. Alexander Kukushkin
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Symmetry is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

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31 pages, 5655 KiB  
Article
New Approach to Cross-Correlation Reflectometry Diagnostics of Nonlocality of Plasma Turbulence
by Alexander B. Kukushkin and Andrei A. Kulichenko
Symmetry 2022, 14(6), 1265; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/sym14061265 - 19 Jun 2022
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1199
Abstract
One of the most important properties of stochastic nonlinear processes, including the turbulence of the hydrodynamic motion of continuous media, is distant spatial correlations. To describe them, an approach was proposed by Shlesinger and colleagues based on a linear integro-differential equation with a [...] Read more.
One of the most important properties of stochastic nonlinear processes, including the turbulence of the hydrodynamic motion of continuous media, is distant spatial correlations. To describe them, an approach was proposed by Shlesinger and colleagues based on a linear integro-differential equation with a slowly decaying kernel, which corresponds to superdiffusion (nonlocal) transfer in the regime of Lévy walks (Lévy flights when the finite velocity of the carriers is taken into account). In this paper, we formulate a similar approach that makes it possible to formulate the problem of determining these properties from the scattering spectra of electromagnetic (EM) waves and cross-correlation reflectometry. A universal description of the relationship between the observed symmetric quasi-coherent component in the spectrum of scattered EM waves in plasmas and a process of the Mandelstam–Brillouin scattering type is obtained. It is shown that the nonlocality of spatial correlations of density fluctuations in a turbulent medium is due to long-free-path carriers of the medium’s perturbations, for which the free path distribution function is described by the Lévy distribution. The effectiveness of the proposed method is shown by the example of the interpretation of the data of cross-correlation reflectometry of EM waves in the radio-frequency range for the diagnosis of turbulent plasma in magnetic confinement devices for axisymmetric toroidal thermonuclear plasma. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Symmetry in Physics of Plasma Technologies)
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11 pages, 1685 KiB  
Article
New Method for Calculation of Radiation Defect Dipole Tensor and Its Application to Di-Interstitials in Copper
by Dmitry N. Demidov, Alexander B. Sivak and Polina A. Sivak
Symmetry 2021, 13(7), 1154; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/sym13071154 - 27 Jun 2021
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1326
Abstract
The effect of external and internal elastic strain fields on the anisotropic diffusion of radiation defects (RDs) can be taken into account if one knows the dipole tensor of saddle-point configurations of the diffusing RDs. It is usually calculated by molecular statics, since [...] Read more.
The effect of external and internal elastic strain fields on the anisotropic diffusion of radiation defects (RDs) can be taken into account if one knows the dipole tensor of saddle-point configurations of the diffusing RDs. It is usually calculated by molecular statics, since the insufficient accuracy of the available experimental techniques makes determining it experimentally difficult. However, for an RD with multiple crystallographically non-equivalent metastable and saddle-point configurations (as in the case of di-interstitials), the problem becomes practically unsolvable due to its complexity. In this paper, we used a different approach to solving this problem. The molecular dynamics (MD) method was used to calculate the strain dependences of the RD diffusion tensor for various types of strain states. These dependences were used to determine the dipole tensor of the effective RD saddle-point configuration, which takes into account the contributions of all real saddle-point configurations. The proposed approach was used for studying the diffusion characteristics of RDs, such as di-interstitials in FCC copper (used in plasma-facing components of fusion reactors under development). The effect of the external elastic field on the MD-calculated normalized diffusion tensor (ratio of the diffusion tensor to a third of its trace) of di-interstitials was fully consistent with analytical predictions based on the kinetic theory, the parameters of which were the components of the dipole tensors, including the range of non-linear dependence of the diffusion tensor on strains. The results obtained allowed for one to simulate the anisotropic diffusion of di-interstitials in external and internal elastic fields, and to take into account the contribution of di-interstitials to the radiation deformation of crystals. This contribution can be significant, as MD data on the primary radiation damage in copper shows that ~20% of self-interstitial atoms produced by cascades of atomic collisions are combined into di-interstitials. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Symmetry in Physics of Plasma Technologies)
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14 pages, 5581 KiB  
Article
Scale Symmetry of Stochastic Surface Clustering under Plasma Influence in Fusion Devices
by Viacheslav Petrovich Budaev
Symmetry 2021, 13(5), 796; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/sym13050796 - 03 May 2021
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1460
Abstract
Titanium, tungsten, carbon, lithium, and beryllium surface structure were analyzed after plasma irradiation in fusion devices. Exceptional extreme high-temperature plasma load in fusion devices leads to specific surface clustering. It is strictly different from any other conditions of material’s clustering. The hierarchical granularity [...] Read more.
Titanium, tungsten, carbon, lithium, and beryllium surface structure were analyzed after plasma irradiation in fusion devices. Exceptional extreme high-temperature plasma load in fusion devices leads to specific surface clustering. It is strictly different from any other conditions of material’s clustering. The hierarchical granularity with cauliflower-like shape and surface self-similarity have been observed. Height’s distribution is deviated from the Gaussian function. The relief roughness differs qualitatively from the ordinary Brownian surface and from clustering under other conditions. In fusion devices, the specific conditions regulate material surface clustering faced to plasma. Ions and clusters melt on the surface and move under the effect of stochastic electromagnetic field driven by the near-wall turbulent plasma. In such a process, long-term correlations lead to the growth of surface with a self-similar structure. The multiscale synergistic effects influence the self-similarity–fractal growth from nanometers to millimeters. Experimental results illustrate universality of stochastic clustering of materials irradiated with plasma in fusion devices. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Symmetry in Physics of Plasma Technologies)
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Review

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21 pages, 7290 KiB  
Review
Thermonuclear Fusion Reactor Plasma-Facing Materials under Conditions of Ion Irradiation and Plasma Flux
by Boris I. Khripunov, Vasily S. Koidan and Evgeny V. Semenov
Symmetry 2021, 13(11), 2081; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/sym13112081 - 03 Nov 2021
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1731
Abstract
A review of experimental studies carried out at the NRC “Kurchatov Institute” on plasma-facing thermonuclear fusion reactor materials is presented in the paper. An experimental method was developed to produce high-level radiation damage in materials simulating the neutron effect by surrogate irradiation with [...] Read more.
A review of experimental studies carried out at the NRC “Kurchatov Institute” on plasma-facing thermonuclear fusion reactor materials is presented in the paper. An experimental method was developed to produce high-level radiation damage in materials simulating the neutron effect by surrogate irradiation with high-energy ions. Plasma-surface interaction is investigated on materials irradiated to high levels of radiation damage in high-flux deuterium plasma. The total fluence of accelerated ions (3–30 MeV, 4He2+, 12C3+, 14N3+, protons) on the samples was 1021–1023 m−2. Experiments were carried out on graphite materials, tungsten, and silicon carbide. Samples have been obtained with a primary defect concentration from 0.1 to 100 displacements per atom, which covers the predicted damage for the ITER and DEMO projects. Erosion dynamics of the irradiated materials in steady-state deuterium plasma, changes of the surface microstructure, and deuterium retention were studied using SEM, TEM, ERDA, TDS, and nuclear backscattering techniques. The surface layer of the materials (3 to hundreds µm) was investigated, and it was shown that the changes in the crystal structure, the loss of their symmetry, and diffusion of defects to grain boundaries play an important role. The most significant results are presented in the paper as an overview of our previous work for many years (carbon and tungsten materials) as well as the relatively recent results (silicon carbide). Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Symmetry in Physics of Plasma Technologies)
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46 pages, 17075 KiB  
Review
Evolution of Heavy Ion Beam Probing from the Origins to Study of Symmetric Structures in Fusion Plasmas
by Alexander Melnikov
Symmetry 2021, 13(8), 1367; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/sym13081367 - 27 Jul 2021
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 2387
Abstract
The overview discusses development of the unique fusion plasma diagnostics—Heavy Ion Beam Probing (HIBP) in application to toroidal magnetic plasma devices. The basis of the HIBP measurements of the plasma electric potential and processing of experimental data are considered. Diagnostic systems for probing [...] Read more.
The overview discusses development of the unique fusion plasma diagnostics—Heavy Ion Beam Probing (HIBP) in application to toroidal magnetic plasma devices. The basis of the HIBP measurements of the plasma electric potential and processing of experimental data are considered. Diagnostic systems for probing plasma in tokamaks TM-4, TJ-1, TUMAN-3M and T-10, stellarators WEGA, TJ-II and Uragan-2M are presented. Promising results of the HIBP projects for various existing modern machines, such as TCV, TCABR, MAST, COMPASS, GLOBUS-M2, T-15 MD and W7-X and the international fusion tokamak reactor ITER are given. Results from two machines with similar size and plasma parameters, but with different types of the magnetic con-figuration: axisymmetric tokamak T-10 and helically symmetric stellarator TJ-II are compared. The results of studies of stationary potential profiles and oscillations in the form of quasimonochromatic and broadband fluctuations, turbulent particle flux, fluctuations of density and poloidal magnetic field are presented. The properties of symmetric structures—zonal flows and geodesic acoustic modes of plasma oscillations as well as Alfvén Eigenmodes excited by fast particles from neutral beam injection heating are described. General trends in the behavior of electric potential and turbulence in magnetized fusion plasmas are revealed. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Symmetry in Physics of Plasma Technologies)
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