Synthetic diagnostics platform for fusion plasmas (invited).

A Synthetic Diagnostics Platform (SDP) for fusion plasmas has been developed which provides state of the art synthetic reflectometry, beam emission spectroscopy, and Electron Cyclotron Emission (ECE) diagnostics. Interfaces to the plasma simulation codes GTC, XGC-1, GTS, and M3D-C are provided, enabling detailed validation of these codes. In this paper, we give an overview of SDP's capabilities, and introduce the synthetic diagnostic modules.

Geometrical optics of dense aerosols: forming dense plasma slabs.

Assembling a freestanding, sharp-edged slab of homogeneous material that is much denser than gas, but much more rarefied than a solid, is an outstanding technological challenge. The solution may lie in focusing a dense aerosol to assume this geometry. However, whereas the geometrical optics of dilute aerosols is a well-developed field, the dense aerosol limit is mostly unexplored.

A synthetic diagnostic for the evaluation of new microwave imaging reflectometry diagnostics for DIII-D and KSTAR.

The first microwave imaging reflectometry (MIR) system for characterization of fluctuating plasma density has been implemented for the TEXTOR tokamak [H. Park et al., Rev.

Trapped-particle instability leading to bursting in stimulated Raman scattering simulations.

Nonlinear, kinetic simulations of stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) under laser-fusion conditions present a bursting behavior. Different explanations for this regime have been given in previous studies: saturation of SRS by increased nonlinear Landau damping [K. Estabrook et al.