The nonlinear dynamics of energetic-particle (EP) driven geodesic acoustic modes (EGAM) in tokamaks is investigated, and compared with the beam-plasma system (BPS). The EGAM is studied with the global gyrokinetic (GK) particle-in-cell code ORB5, treating the thermal ions and EP (in this case, fast ions) as GK and neglecting the kinetic effects of the electrons. The wave–particle nonlinearity is only considered in the EGAM nonlinear dynamics. The BPS is studied with a one-dimensional code where the thermal plasma is treated as a linear dielectric, and the EP (in this case, fast electrons) with an N-body Hamiltonian formulation. A one-to-one mapping between the EGAM and the BPS is described. The focus is on understanding and predicting the EP redistribution in phase space. We identify here two distinct regimes for the mapping: in the low-drive regime, the BPS mapping with the EGAM is found to be complete, and in the high-drive regime, the EGAM dynamics and the BPS dynamics are found to differ. The transition is described with the presence of a non-negligible frequency chirping, which affects the EGAM but not the BPS, above the identified drive threshold. The difference can be resolved by adding an ad hoc frequency modification to the BPS model. As a main result, the formula for the prediction of the nonlinear width of the velocity redistribution around the resonance velocity is provided. This article is written as the second of a series of articles (the first being Biancalani et al. (J. Plasma Phys., vol. 83 (6), 2017, 725830602)) on the saturation of EGAMs due to wave–particle nonlinearity.

Particle transport, acceleration and energization are phenomena of major importance for both space and laboratory plasmas. Despite years of study, an accurate theoretical description of these effects is still lacking. Validating models with self-consistent, kinetic simulations represents today a new challenge for the description of weakly collisional, turbulent plasmas. We perform simulations of steady state turbulence in the 2.5-dimensional approximation (three-dimensional fields that depend only on two-dimensional spatial directions). The chosen plasma parameters allow to span different systems, going from the solar corona to the solar wind, from the Earth’s magnetosheath to confinement devices. To describe the ion diffusion we adapted the nonlinear guiding centre (NLGC) theory to the two-dimensional case. Finally, we investigated the local influence of coherent structures on particle energization and acceleration: current sheets play an important role if the ions’ Larmor radii are of the order of the current sheet’s size. This resonance-like process leads to the violation of the magnetic moment conservation, eventually enhancing the velocity-space diffusion.

A family of Lorentz invariant scalar functions of the magnetic field is defined in an ideal relativistic plasma. These invariants are advected by the plasma fluid motion and play the role of the potential magnetic field introduced by Hide in (Ann. Geophys., vol. 1, 1983, 59) along the lines of Ertel’s theorem. From these invariants we recover the Cauchy conditions for the magnetic field components in the mapping from Eulerian to Lagrangian variables. In addition, the adopted procedure allows us to formulate, in a Lorentz invariant form, the Alfvén theorem for the conservation of the magnetic flux through a surface comoving with the plasma.

An analytic theory is presented of magnetic structures in collisionless, high-$\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FD}$ plasmas. Using a reduced magnetohydrodynamic model, a stationary nonlinear solution is constructed in the form of a Kelvin–Stuart cat’s eyes chain of magnetic islands, on the spatial scale that exceeds the characteristic ion lengths. The solution is imbedded in a background current sheet and possesses both a significant plasma density perturbation trapped inside the magnetic islands and a compressional magnetic field component that is driven mostly by a current loop located at the separatrix of the islands. This theory may provide an explanation for the magnetic structures observed in the solar wind close to the Earth by the Cluster spacecraft.

An electromagnetic reduced gyrofluid model for collisionless plasmas, accounting for electron inertia, finite ion Larmor radius effects and Landau-fluid closures for the electron fluid is derived by means of an asymptotic expansion from a parent gyrofluid model. In the absence of terms accounting for Landau damping, the model is shown to possess a non-canonical Hamiltonian structure. The corresponding Casimir invariants are derived and use is made thereof, in order to obtain a set of normal field variables, in terms of which the Poisson bracket and the model equations take a remarkably simple form. The inclusion of perpendicular temperature fluctuations generalizes previous Hamiltonian reduced fluid models and, in particular, the presence of ion perpendicular gyrofluid temperature fluctuations reflects into the presence of two new Lagrangian invariants governing the ion dynamics. The model is applied, in the cold-ion limit, to investigate numerically a magnetic reconnection problem. The Landau damping terms are shown to reduce, by decreasing the electron temperature fluctuations, the linear reconnection rate and to delay the nonlinear island growth. The saturated island width, on the other hand, is independent of Landau damping. The fraction of magnetic energy converted into perpendicular kinetic energy also appears to be unaffected by the Landau damping terms, which, on the other hand, dissipate parallel kinetic energy as well as free energy due to density and electron temperature fluctuations.

Starting from expressions in Connor et al. (Phys. Fluids, vol. 31, 1988, p. 577), we derive a one-dimensional tearing equation similar to the approximate equation obtained by Hegna & Callen (Phys. Plasmas, vol. 1, 1994, p. 2308) and Nishimura et al. (Phys. Plasmas, vol. 5, 1998, p. 4292), but for more realistic toroidal equilibria. The intention is to use this approximation to explore the role of steep profiles, bootstrap currents and strong shaping in the vicinity of a separatrix, on the stability of tearing modes which are resonant in the H-mode pedestal region of finite aspect ratio, shaped cross-section tokamaks, e.g. the Joint European Torus (JET). We discuss how this one-dimensional model for tearing modes, which assumes a single poloidal harmonic for the perturbed poloidal flux, compares with a model that includes poloidal coupling Fitzpatrick et al. (Nucl. Fusion, vol. 33, 1993, p. 1533).

The nature of the cross-scale connections between the inertial-range turbulent energy cascade and the small-scale kinetic processes in collisionless plasmas is explored through the analysis of two-dimensional hybrid Vlasov–Maxwell numerical simulation (HVM), with $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FC}$ particles, and through a proxy of the turbulent energy transfer rate, namely the local energy transfer (LET) rate. Correlations between pairs of variables, including those related to kinetic processes and to deviation from Maxwellian distributions, are first evidenced. Then, the general properties and the statistical scaling laws of the LET are described, confirming its reliability for the description of the turbulent cascade and revealing its textured topology. Finally, the connection between such proxy and the diagnostic variables is explored using conditional averaging, showing that several quantities are enhanced in the presence of large positive energy flux, and reduced near sites of negative flux. These observations can help in determining which processes are involved in the dissipation of energy at small scales, as for example the ion-cyclotron or mirror instabilities typically associated with perpendicular anisotropy of temperature.

Nanopulse atmospheric carbon monoxide discharges and corresponding afterglows have been investigated in a wide range of applied reduced electric field (130 < E/N < 200 Td) and different pulse durations (2–50 ns). The results have been obtained by solving an appropriate Boltzmann equation for the electron energy distribution function (EEDF) coupled to the kinetics of vibrational and electronic excited states as well as to a simplified plasma chemistry for the different species formed during the activation of CO. The molar fraction of electronically excited states generated in the discharge is sufficient to create structures in the EEDF in the afterglow regime. On the other hand, only for long duration pulses (i.e. 50 ns), non-equilibrium vibrational distributions can be observed especially in the afterglow. The trend of the results for the case study E/N = 200 Td, $\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}_{\text{pulse}}=2$  ns is qualitatively and quantitatively similar to the corresponding case for CO2 implying that the activation of CO2 by cold plasmas should take into account the kinetics of formed CO with the same accuracy as the CO2 itself.

The nonlinear dynamics of energetic-particle (EP) driven geodesic acoustic modes (EGAM) is investigated here. A numerical analysis with the global gyrokinetic particle-in-cell code ORB5 is performed, and the results are interpreted with the analytical theory, in close comparison with the theory of the beam-plasma instability. Only axisymmetric modes are considered, with a nonlinear dynamics determined by wave–particle interaction. Quadratic scalings of the saturated electric field with respect to the linear growth rate are found for the case of interest. As a main result, the formula for the saturation level is provided. Near the saturation, we observe a transition from adiabatic to non-adiabatic dynamics, i.e. the frequency chirping rate becomes comparable to the resonant EP bounce frequency. The numerical analysis is performed here with electrostatic simulations with circular flux surfaces, and kinetic effects of the electrons are neglected.

The time evolution of slow sound waves in a homogeneous, collisionless and quasineutral plasma, in particular their Landau damping, is investigated using the kinetic-magnetohydrodynamics formulation of Ramos (J. Plasma Phys. vol. 81, 2015 p. 905810325; vol. 82, 2016 p. 905820607). In this approach, the electric field is eliminated from a closed, hybrid fluid-kinetic system that ensures automatically the fulfilment of the charge neutrality condition. Considering the time dependence of a spatial-Fourier-mode linear perturbation with wavevector parallel to the equilibrium magnetic field, this can be cast as a second-order self-adjoint problem with a continuum spectrum of real and positive squared frequencies. Therefore, a conventional resolution of the identity with a continuum basis of singular normal modes is guaranteed, which simplifies significantly a Van Kampen-like treatment of the Landau damping. The explicit form of such singular normal modes is obtained, along with their orthogonality relations. These are used to derive the damped time evolution of the fluid moments of solutions of initial-value problems, for the most general kinds of initial conditions. The non-zero parallel electric field is not used explicitly in this analysis, but it is calculated from any given solution after the later has been obtained.