Background

Arthur Peeters main area of research is that of Nuclear Fusion, which is a candidate solution for the energy demands of our society. Nuclear fusion is promising due to the unlimited amount of fuel, the fact that it is CO2 neutral, the limited amount of long lived radioactive waste, and the inherent safety of the approach. As a minor drawback, one could mention that a working concept for this approach still needs to be demonstrated. The construction of a working fusion reactor is hindered by several, in itself rather interesting, physics phenomena. One of the main problems is that of energy confinement, and it is this area on which the work concentrates.

Research profile (keywords)

Plasma physics, gyro-kinetic theory, micro-instabilities, turbulent dynamics, high performance computing, theoretical explanation of observed transport phenomena

Research projects.

GKW (micro-instabilties and turbulence).

Selected publications

• A.G. Peeters, C. Angioni, D. Strintzi, Toroidal Momentum Pinch Velocity due to the Coriolis Drift Effect on Small Scale Instabilities in a Toroidal Plasma , Phys. Rev. Lett. 98 (26), 265003 (June 2007)
  
  This paper describes a novel pinch velocity for the anomalous toroidal momentum transport in a tokamak. (anomalous here means due to small scale turbulence). The effect is generated through the Coriolis drift in the co-moving system, which leads to a coupling of the parallel velocity fluctuations with the density and temperature perturbations. The latter are generated by small scale turbulence driven by the radial temperature and density gradients. The gradients of temperature and density, over the coupling with the momentum balance, therefore, also generate a radial flux of toroidal momentum. Such a flux is of interest since plasma rotation is known to have a positive influence on confinement and stability properties of the plasma. In a reactor the torque on the plasma is, however, expected to be small, and only an anomalous pinch term can generate a finite rotation.

• A.G. Peeters, C. Angioni, M. Apostoliceanu, F. Jenko, F. Ryter and the ASDEX Upgrade Team Linear gyrokinetic stability calculations of electron heat dominated plasmas in ASDEX Upgrade PHYSICS OF PLASMAS 12 022505 (2005)
  
  In this paper a comparison between gyro-kinetic stability calculations and experiments using dominant electron heating is presented. It shows that the dominant instability under the condition of dominant electron heating is the so called Trapped Electron Mode (In this mode a key role in the dynamics is played by the electrons trapped in the magnetic well on each of the magnetic surfaces). The electron heat transport properties can be well described by the presented calculations.

• A.G. Peeters,