Topological bifurcations in the evolution of coherent structures in a convection model

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Abstract

Blob filaments are coherent structures in a turbulent plasma flow. Understanding the evolution of these structures is important to improve magnetic plasma confinement. Three state variables describe blob filaments in a plasma convection model. A dynamical systems approach analyzes the evolution of these three variables. A critical point of a variable defines a feature point for a region where that variable is significant. For a range of Rayleigh and Prandtl numbers, the bifurcations of the critical points of the three variables are investigated with time as the primary bifurcation parameter. Bifurcation curves separate the parameter planes into regions with different critical point configurations for the state variables. For Prandtl number equal to 1, the number of critical points of each state variable increases with increasing Rayleigh number. For Rayleigh number equal to 104, the number of critical points is the greatest for Prandtl numbers of magnitude 100.
Original languageEnglish
Article number082301
JournalPhysics of Plasmas
Volume24
Issue number8
Number of pages7
ISSN1070-664X
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2017

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