The Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) seeks to fill an Associate Research Physicist position based at DIII-D General Atomics in San Diego, CA. This position will work on diagnostics and physics behind particle and thermal transport in the H-mode pedestal.
The research will largely center around major upgrades to the main ion charge exchange recombination spectroscopy system. This will include hardware upgrades to the spectrometer systems to meet an evolving set of measurement needs, including spectrally resolved passive D-alpha measurements for plasma fueling studies. Additionally, several advanced analysis techniques such as machine learning will be deployed to improve the analysis and fitting of several years of historical data. This set of main ion and neutral measurements will be used along with DIII-D pedestal diagnostics to improve a multichannel based understanding of particle and thermal transport in the H-mode pedestal.
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The goal of the work in this position will be to develop spectroscopic diagnostic systems. The incumbent will use these new capabilities along with existing state-of-the-art measurements and modeling to study the physics of pedestal particle and thermal transport on the DIII-D tokamak at General Atomics in San Diego, CA.
The candidate will propose, design and lead DIII-D experiments, leveraging the existing and future diagnostic capabilities, in close collaboration with the edge & boundary, and burning plasma physics groups at DIII-D as well as physicists at PPPL and collaborating institutions. The role involves development of spectroscopic diagnostics, advanced data analysis techniques (i.e machine learning) to interpret the raw data, and experimental analysis of particle and thermal transport based on data from the main ion charge exchange recombination spectroscopy diagnostic.
Tasks will include interpretive transport modeling of the heat and particle fluxes using time-dependent simulation codes such as TRANSP to obtain the relevant fluxes for comparison with collisional and turbulent transport modeling.
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