Magnetohydrodynamics and Energetic Particles

Magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) is an extremely useful way to describe a plasma (as a fluid), which apply to a wide range of phenomena in tokamaks, stellarators and other fusion concepts. MHD instabilities can strongly degrade the confinement as well as trigger disruptions. In addition, MHD modes can interact with fast ion populations which would be of relevance in future burning plasma regimes. My present interest covers vertical, core and edge MHD instabilities in tokamaks, as well as their interaction with energetic particles.

Disruption in Tokamaks

One of the main challenges to make tokamaks economically viable for a fusion reactor is the deep understanding of disruptions, which are a sudden loss of plasma confinement.
The study of disruptions in tokamaks focuses on (i) prediction and avoidance, (ii) mitigation and (iii) consequences. My interest focuses mostly on understanding consequences, like vertical displacement events and runaway electrons, among others, and mitigation, like massive material injection (gas or pellets).

Others: Turbulence

Usually, in a stable MHD plasma, the quality of the energy confinement is dominated by microturbulence. I have also conducted studies of microturbulence in spherical tokamaks, covering both ion and electron scale turbulence.