School of Physics, Engineering and Technology
MHD eigensolver
Contact person: Roddy Vann
Modern tokamaks such as MAST at CCFE are equipped with an array of magnetic probes that can detect waves resonantly excited by fast particles. However, the plasma is sufficiently hot and dense that these probes have to be located well outside the plasma. We are interested in being able to characterise the underlying wave modes using external probes. In order to do this, we need to make comparison with a theoretical model that extends the predicted wave amplitude profile (for each candidate wave) all the way out to the probes. Existing codes that use coordinate systems aligned with the magnetic field struggle with the geometric singularity at the plasma edge. We are developing a much simpler code, written in Python, that calculates the wave structure in cylindrical geometry, treating the plasma and vacuum on the same numerical basis.