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P: Fachverband Plasmaphysik

P 7: Magnetic Confinement III

P 7.4: Vortrag

Dienstag, 17. März 2026, 17:40–18:05, KH 02.016

GENE-X edge/SOL gyrokinetic turbulence simulations with fluid neutrals — •Sabine Ogier-Collin, Philipp Ulbl, Wladimir Zholobenko, and Frank Jenko — Max-Planck Institute for Plasma Physics, Garching bei München, Germany.

In magnetic confinement fusion devices, the plasma edge and scrape-off layer (SOL) is not fully ionised. Neutral particles, by interacting with the plasma, affect radial profiles, gradient-driven instabilities, particle transport across the separatrix, and blob dynamics in the SOL. Understanding these processes is critical for optimising reactor core performance while ensuring efficient heat and particle exhaust.

We present the neutrals extension of GENE-X, a first-principles gyrokinetic turbulence code for edge and SOL transport in realistic magnetic geometries. This extension couples GENE-X's continuum full-f electromagnetic, collisional plasma model to a neutrals density evolution equation, as a first step towards a comprehensive neutrals fluid description. Charge-exchange reactions are modelled using a diffusion equation, and specially tailored conservative Krook operators have been derived for ionisation, recombination, and associated radiation.

Relaxation studies of electrons, deuterium ions, and deuterium atoms enable isolation of the effect of each coupling term on equilibration dynamics and plasma velocity-space structure. We also present first turbulence simulations in diverted geometry, targeting validation against the TCV-X21 dataset. This development enables gyrokinetic-level studies of how neutrals influence plasma turbulence in reactor-relevant regimes.

Keywords: Magnetic Confinement Fusion; Turbulence; Edge and SOL; Neutrals; Computational physics