Hola Chicos (I like this phrase so much ), my name is Francis Clinton Prasanth and I am a student of the European Master's in Nuclear Fusion and Engineering Physics. During my first-year vacation, I got the opportunity to do a three-month Internship at CIEMAT, Madrid for investigating the role of Neutrals in the Turbulence processes in TJ-II Stellerator. I would like to thank FuseNet for providing a valuable support for my Internship and giving me a chance to experience life in the city of Madrid.
Internship Work
The theme of my internship can be summarized in one sentence: if neutrals react to plasma fluctuations and become turbulent, neutral-induced non-linearities would be expected in plasma turbulence. So the aim of my internship is identify this non-linear relationship by analyzing the density (currents) and potential signals from the Langmuir probes, measured during ECRH and NBI scenarios near the plasma boundary at the TJ-II Stellerator. During three months, I learned about non-linear tools such as bicoherence and transfer entropy. I selectively used them in MATLAB to analyze the signals from the Langmuir probes and as a means to identify the non-linear relationships.
At the end of my internship, results obtained did not reveal any clear dependence of the bicoherence on the plasma temperature, indicating that the role of neutrals in the turbulence is negligible. Interestingly however, evidence of non-linear coupling between Alfven eigenmodes and broadband fluctuations has been identied in the plasma edge. Further interpretations of these research findings are in progress.
During this project, I was under the supervision of Dr.Carlos Hidalgo who explained the task I had to perform during this internship and with whom I had a monthly meeting to summarize what had been done, what my perspective was at the moment of the meeting and to share opinions. Then, on a daily basis, I could refer to Dr.Boudewijn van Milligen who patiently guided me by always making useful and constructive recommendations at all levels of my internship. I have to thank my supervisors Dr. Carlos Hidalgo and Dr. Boudewijn van Milligen for their wonderful guidance throughout the internship, for successfully completing my work.
Hola Madrid
After my work, i used to spend time by going to different parks in Madrid and also to some cultural festivals taking place in different parts of Madrid to witness the kindness and warm gestures of the Spanish people. At the end of my internship, I visited an ancient city Toledo where i enjoyed the historical Architecture of Spain and visited the Famous Military museum 'Museo del
Ejercito de Toledo' which gave me a glimpse of historical weapons used throughout the history of the Spain. Tip for any prospective visitors to Madrid during summer, don't miss the opportunity to witness the Festivals taking place throughout the city.