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At least 19 records

Physics-constrained machine learning for electrodynamics without gauge ambiguity based on Fourier transformed Maxwell’s equations

We utilize a Fourier transformation-based representation of Maxwell’s equations to develop physics-constrained neural networks for electrodynamics without gauge ambiguity, which we label the Fourier–Helmholtz–Maxwell neural operator method. In this approach, both of Gauss’s laws and Faraday’s law are built in as hard constraints, as well as the longitudinal component of Ampère–Maxwell in Fourier space, assuming the continuity equation. An encoder–decoder network acts as a solution operator for the transverse components of the Fourier transformed vector potential, $\hat{A}_⟂(k,t)$, whose two degrees of freedom are used to predict the electromagnetic fields. This method was tested on two electron beam simulations. Among the models investigated, it was found that a U-Net architecture exhibited the best performance as it trained quicker, was more accurate and generalized better than the other architectures examined. We demonstrate that our approach is useful for solving Maxwell’s equations for the electromagnetic fields generated by intense relativistic charged particle beams and that it generalizes well to unseen test data, while being orders of magnitude quicker than conventional simulations. We show that the model can be re-trained to make highly accurate predictions in as few as 20 epochs on a previously unseen data set.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Simulations of plasma current induced by toroidal field ramping down on tokamaks

In tokamak experiments, the BT ramping down can drive off-axis and parallel inductive current. This approach leads to a decrease in q95 and an increase in normalized beta, βN. The off-axis inductive current also broadens the current profile. Typically, the 1.5D transport code is used to simulate the time evolution of the plasma current profile, which is based on the flux-surface-averaged Faraday’s law. The ONETWO code is one of those transport codes. However, this code cannot simulate the situation of the evolving toroidal field BT. This article proposes a new time-dependent model to take into account the BT ramping down situation. A modified formula of flux-surface-averaged Faraday’s law was derived to consider the effect of the BT ramping rate on the current evolution, and it was implemented in the ONETWO code. Then, the modified ONETWO code was used to simulate the BT ramping down experiment on DIII-D. The simulation result of the plasma current evolution with BT ramping down shows a broader current profile with smaller ohmic current induced by the poloidal field, compared to that without BT ramping down.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Local analysis of fast magnetic reconnection

Fast magnetic reconnection is defined by the topology of the magnetic field lines changing on a timescale that is approximately an order of magnitude longer than the topology-conserving ideal-evolution timescale. Fast reconnection is an intrinsic property of Faraday's law when the evolving magnetic field depends non-trivially on all three spatial coordinates and is commonly observed—even when the effects that allow topology breaking are arbitrarily small. The associated current density need only be enhanced by a factor of approximately ten and flows in thin but broad ribbons along the magnetic field. These results follow from the variation in the separation of neighboring pairs of magnetic field lines, which in an ideal evolution typically increases exponentially with time, and the existence of a spatial scale below which magnetic field lines freely change their identities due to non-ideal effects, such as resistivity. Traditional reconnection theory ignores exponentially large variations and relies on the current density reaching a magnitude that is exponentially larger than is actually required. Here, an analysis of the behavior of magnetic field lines in the neighborhood of an arbitrarily chosen line is used to obtain more precise and rigorous results on intrinsic reconnection. The maximum parallel kinetic energy of collisionless charged particles is shown to have an exponential increase in time during a generic magnetic evolution.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

The rapid destruction of toroidal magnetic surfaces

The operation of ITER will require reliable simulations in order to avoid major damage to the device from disruptions. Disruptions are the sudden breakup of magnetic surfaces across the plasma volume—a fast magnetic reconnection. This reconnection can be caused by the growth of perturbations outside of the plasma core causing an ideal perturbation to the core. This causes an increasing ratio of the maximum to the minimum separation, Δmax/Δmin, between neighboring magnetic surfaces. Magnetic reconnection becomes a dominant process when magnetic field lines can quickly interchange connections over a spatial scale ar. This occurs when Δmax/Δmin≳ar/Δd, where Δd is the scale over which non-ideal effects make magnetic field lines indistinguishable. Traditional reconnection theory is fundamentally different. It is a study of the steady-state cancelation of oppositely directed magnetic field components across a thin layer. During more than sixty years, mathematical implications of Faraday's law have been derived that clarify and constrain the physics of fast magnetic reconnection. These are reviewed because they are not commonly known but are needed to understand and to place in context how an ideal magnetic evolution can cause reconnection to quickly become a dominant process no matter how small Δd/ar may be.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Eddy Current Lift-Off Sensor Model

Eddy current sensors measure the lift-off or distance between the sensor head and a conducting surface. The sensor consists of a conducting coil carrying an alternating electrical current. By Faraday’s Law, a magnetic field is generated within the coil. This field induces electrical current loops within the conducting surface which in turn generate a magnetic field. This induced magnetic field opposes the coil magnetic field and thus, the current in the coil. This reduces the inductance of the coil while increasing its resistance. The strength of the induced magnetic field and consequently the coil inductance are proportional to the lift-off of the coil from the surface. Thus, a measurement of the coil inductance may yield a measure of the lift-off.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Non-contact based measurement of thin film coatings using eddy current measurements

When a time varying magnetic field attempts to penetrate a conductive surface, the surface will respond to that time varying field by the generation of circular currents around the flux lines. This effect is described by Faraday’s law of induction. An eddy current based measurement system attempts to discern the power loss incurred by these circulating currents within the conductive surface. The measurement system described here uses an Agilent E 4980A LCR meter to quantify the reaction of the film to the high frequency magnetic field lines which are forced into the film. The measurement metric is the meter’s interpretation of the power dissipation caused by the measured film. The meter is setup to use the Ls/Rs inductor model, and is run at 1 Mhz to bring the losses within the film as high as possible for sensitivity.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗

Time-domain analysis of planar microstrip devices using a generalized Yee-algorithm based on unstructured grids

The generalized Yee-algorithm is presented for the temporal full-wave analysis of planar microstrip devices. This algorithm has the significant advantage over the traditional Yee-algorithm in that it is based on unstructured and irregular grids. The robustness of the generalized Yee-algorithm is that structures that contain curved conductors or complex three-dimensional geometries can be more accurately, and much more conveniently modeled using standard automatic grid generation techniques. This generalized Yee-algorithm is based on the the time-marching solution of the discrete form of Maxwell's equations in their integral form. To this end, the electric and magnetic fields are discretized over a dual, irregular, and unstructured grid. The primary grid is assumed to be composed of general fitted polyhedra distributed throughout the volume. The secondary grid (or dual grid) is built up of the closed polyhedra whose edges connect the centroid's of adjacent primary cells, penetrating shared faces. Faraday's law and Ampere's law are used to update the fields normal to the primary and secondary grid faces, respectively. Subsequently, a correction scheme is introduced to project the normal fields onto the grid edges. It is shown that this scheme is stable, maintains second-order accuracy, and preserves the divergenceless nature of the flux densities. Finally, for computational efficiency the algorithm is structured as a series of sparse matrix-vector multiplications. Based on this scheme, the generalized Yee-algorithm has been implemented on vector and parallel high performance computers in a highly efficient manner.

Gedney, Stephen D.↗

Plasmaspheric convection with non-closed streamlines

A mechanism is described to drive a continuous outflow of thermal plasma in the plasmasphere without violating Faraday's law. It is based on time-dependent interchange motion. time-dependent interchange motion.

Lemaire, J. F.↗

Simulations of Solar Wind Turbulence

Recently we have restructured our approach to simulating magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence in the solar wind. Previously, we had defined a 'virtual' heliosphere that contained, for example, a tilted rotating current sheet, microstreams, quasi-two-dimensional fluctuations as well as Alfven waves. In this new version of the code, we use the global, time-stationary, WKB Alfven wave-driven solar wind model developed by Usmanov and described in Usmanov and Goldstein [2003] to define the initial state of the system. Consequently, current sheets, and fast and slow streams are computed self-consistently from an inner, photospheric, boundary. To this steady-state configuration, we add fluctuations close to, but above, the surface where the flow become super-Alfvenic. The time-dependent MHD equations are then solved using a semi-discrete third-order Central Weighted Essentially Non-Oscillatory (CWENO) numerical scheme. The computational domain now includes the entire sphere; the geometrical singularity at the poles is removed using the multiple grid approach described in Usmanov [1996]. Wave packets are introduced at the inner boundary such as to satisfy Faraday's Law [Yeh and Dryer, 1985] and their nonlinear evolution are followed in time.

Goldstein, Melvyn L.↗

Electrochemical and mechanical polishing and shaping method and system

A method and system are provided for the shaping and polishing of the surface of a material selected from the group consisting of electrically semi-conductive materials and conductive materials. An electrically non-conductive polishing lap incorporates a conductive electrode such that, when the polishing lap is placed on the material's surface, the electrode is placed in spaced-apart juxtaposition with respect to the material's surface. A liquid electrolyte is disposed between the material's surface and the electrode. The electrolyte has an electrochemical stability constant such that cathodic material deposition on the electrode is not supported when a current flows through the electrode, the electrolyte and the material. As the polishing lap and the material surface experience relative movement, current flows through the electrode based on (i) adherence to Faraday's Law, and (ii) a pre-processing profile of the surface and a desired post-processing profile of the surface.

Engelhaupt, Darell E.↗

Does the Solar Wind Electric Field Control the Reconnection Rate at Earth's Subsolar Magnetopause?

We demonstrate that the reconnection rate at the subsolar magnetopause is stronglycontrolled by the solar wind electric field and depends weakly on the local properties of the dissipationregion. Our approach is to match the solar wind and magnetospheric states in an internal boundarylayer described by the Cassak and Shay (2007, https://doi.org/10.1063/1.2795630) expression fortwo-dimensional asymmetric reconnection. Faraday's law along the Sun-Earth line determinesthe variation of the solar wind electric field from the bow shock to the magnetopause. While themagnetospheric plasma exerts some control over the reconnection rate, magnetic flux pileup in the sheathpartially compensates for any local reduction in the reconnection rate. For a fixed magnetospheric state,the reconnection rate is shown to be directly proportional to the solar wind electric field, thus explainingwhy the solar wind electric field correlates well with geomagnetic indices.

Dorelli, John C.↗

Identifying Large Transients within ARTEMIS Solar Wind Data for Nightside Time Domain Electromagnetic Sounding

Mysteries regarding the Moon’s internal composition persist. By studying the induced magnetic fields produced by the Moon in response to changes in the magnetic field of the surrounding solar wind, inferences can be made regarding the associated eddy currents and thus regarding the electrical conductivities of the lunar regions hosting these currents. In this manner, a greater understanding of the Moon’s inner geophysical properties can be garnered. This investigative strategy, known as electromagnetic sounding, can be employed using magnetic field data from the ARTEMIS satellites. In particular, data taken from time intervals in which one satellite is within the lunar wake and within 500 km of the surface while the other is relatively far from the surface immersed within the pristine solar wind. Per Faraday’s Law, the steeper the magnetic transient from the solar wind, the greater the current induced within the Moon, and per Ampère’s Law, the greater this induced current, the larger the magnetic field it produces. Larger signals generally feature higher signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs). Thus, larger transients tend to produce more valuable data in terms of sounding. The enhanced separation between source signal and reaction signal via the aforementioned positioning of the probes during time intervals of interest augments the SNRs as well. Here we discuss tools developed in Python (making use of the PySPEDAS package) that expedites the task of identifying large magnetic transients within these time frames of interest. These exceptional changes in magnetic field are then evaluated for use in electromagnetic sounding as described above. We have identified 51 major transient events (during times of interest) from 8/1/2011 to 7/31/2021. One key hurdle we overcame was identifying and navigating data gaps. These data gaps would often interfere with our time intervals of interest, necessitating an algorithm to avoid them.

Moons↗

Interim Evaluation of State-of-the-Art Controllers for Low-Power Stirling Generators for Space Applications

Stirling convertors use a linear alternator to extract power from the piston motion; this requires a coil and a magnet (Faraday’s law). The coil introduces unwanted phase shift to degrade power output as well as introduce instability; i.e., low power factor. Tuning capacitor is added to increase power output and stability; widely accepted that tuning capacitor value will affect both the power output and stability.

Free-Piston Stirling Convertor Controller↗

A custom high-stability pulse generator for the test of a novel in-situ magnetic sensor developed to detect radiation damage in undulators

High-performance analog-to-digital converters (ADC) have been widely applied in many areas of science. For instance, magnetic field measurements based on the Faraday’s induction law require high-precision voltmeters to measure induced voltages. In this study in the context of free-electron lasers technology, the Magnetic Measurements Team at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory proposed a novel in-situ radiation damage detection system (RDDS) for detecting small field variations in undulators. The system measures the flux change in a flexible printed-circuit coil attached to the magnet array during the undulator gap movement. The gap movement changes the magnetic field, which induces a voltage signal in the coil that is measured and integrated with an ADC. Although the system is capable of detecting relative flux changes better than 100 ppm, drift in the ADC’s gain or offset can cause apparent changes in the relative flux. This paper describes the first attempt to developed a high-precision verification circuit to perform ADC testing in the framework of the novel RDDS. The circuit generates a reference voltage pulse with a voltage–time integral relative precision better than 50 ppm for a few hundreds of mVs — the typical order of magnitude measured with the RDDS. The circuit’s design combines a fast and precise switch with a low-noise voltage reference. Long-term measurements allowed statistical analysis and showed that averaging the voltage–time integral of ten pulses gives the required 50 ppm stability. Moreover, reproducibility tests confirmed that the circuit’s output is invariable under small power supply instabilities and equipment shutdown. Instruments and applications designed to quantify the magnetic field by integrating voltage signals may use the pulse generator proposed in this paper for verification purposes.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

Scaling theory of three-dimensional magnetic reconnection spreading

We develop a first-principles scaling theory of the spreading of three-dimensional (3D) magnetic reconnection of finite extent in the out of plane direction. This theory addresses systems with or without an out of plane (guide) magnetic field, and with or without Hall physics. The theory reproduces known spreading speeds and directions with and without guide fields, unifying previous knowledge in a single theory. New results include: (1) Reconnection spreads in a particular direction if an x-line is induced at the interface between reconnecting and non-reconnecting regions, which is controlled by the out of plane gradient of the electric field in the outflow direction. (2) The spreading mechanism for anti-parallel collisionless reconnection is convection, as is known, but for guide field reconnection it is magnetic field bending. We confirm the theory using 3D two-fluid and resistive-magnetohydrodynamics simulations. (3) The theory explains why anti-parallel reconnection in resistive-magnetohydrodynamics does not spread. (4) The simulation domain aspect ratio, associated with the free magnetic energy, influences whether reconnection spreads or convects with a fixed x-line length. (5) We perform a simulation initiating anti-parallel collisionless reconnection with a pressure pulse instead of a magnetic perturbation, finding spreading is unchanged rather than spreading at the magnetosonic speed as previously suggested. The results provide a theoretical framework for understanding spreading beyond systems studied here, and are important for applications including two-ribbon solar flares and reconnection in Earth’s magnetosphere.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

A new field solver for modeling of relativistic particle-laser interactions using the particle-in-cell algorithm

A customized finite-difference field solver for the particle-in-cell (PIC) algorithm that provides higher fidelity for wave-particle interactions in intense electromagnetic waves is presented. In many problems of interest, particles with relativistic energies interact with intense electromagnetic fields that have phase velocities near the speed of light. Numerical errors can arise due to (1) dispersion errors in the phase velocity of the wave, (2) the staggering in time between the electric and magnetic fields and between particle velocity and position and (3) errors in the time derivative in the momentum advance. Errors of the first two kinds are analyzed in detail. It is shown that by using field solvers with different -space operators in Faraday’s and Ampere’s law, the dispersion errors and magnetic field time-staggering errors in the particle pusher can be simultaneously removed for electromagnetic waves moving primarily in a specific direction. Here, the new algorithm was implemented into Osiris by using customized higher-order finite-difference operators. Schemes using the proposed solver in combination with different particle pushers are compared through PIC simulation. It is shown that the use of the new algorithm, together with an analytic particle pusher (assuming constant fields over a time step), can lead to accurate modeling of the motion of a single electron in an intense laser field with normalized vector potentials, eA / mc 2 , exceeding for typical cell sizes and time steps.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Finite-surface method for the Maxwell equations in generalized coordinates

A finite-surface technique for the Maxwell equations in generalized nonorthogonal coordinates is developed. It directly applies the integral Faraday's and Ampere's laws to faces of primary and secondary grid cells, respectively. The technique features an accurate treatment of matching conditions at a material interface, grid singularities, and radiation conditions at outer boundaries.

Vinokur, Marcel↗