Interaction renormalization and the plasma staircase
Abstract
We resolve an existing question concerning dynamical and structural stability of the E {\times} B staircases in magnetically confined fusion plasma. The problem has stirred considerable interest in the literature due to a unique combination of its scientific and practical aspects. Here, we report a new approach to the problem by combining the paradigmatic Hasegawa-Wakatani model of electrostatic drift-wave turbulence with an idea of interaction renormalization, imported from quantum field theory. It is shown based on the Schrödinger-Newton equation with renormalized interaction constant that the plasma staircase is robust and stable as soon as the nonadiabaticity parameter, δ, goes above a certain critical value, and is unstable otherwise. This critical value is an exact result of the interaction model and is found to be δc = π. For δ < δc , the unstable system expands in the radial direction, resulting in a radial second moment that grows with time t as t^(2/3). The results obtained bear important implications with regard to the implementation of arrays of semipermeable transport barriers in tokamaks, suggesting a threshold condition for their generation.
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BibTeX
@misc{milovanov2026interaction,
title = {{Interaction renormalization and the plasma staircase}},
author = {Alexander V. Milovanov and Alexander Iomin and Jens Juul Rasmussen},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2609.22915},
eprint = {2609.22915},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.22915},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Interaction renormalization and the plasma staircase
AU - Alexander V. Milovanov
AU - Alexander Iomin
AU - Jens Juul Rasmussen
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/19
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2609.22915
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.22915
AB - We resolve an existing question concerning dynamical and structural stability of the E {\times} B staircases in magnetically confined fusion plasma. The problem has stirred considerable interest in the literature due to a unique combination of its scientific and practical aspects. Here, we report a new approach to the problem by combining the paradigmatic Hasegawa-Wakatani model of electrostatic drift-wave turbulence with an idea of interaction renormalization, imported from quantum field theory. It is shown based on the Schrödinger-Newton equation with renormalized interaction constant that the plasma staircase is robust and stable as soon as the nonadiabaticity parameter, δ, goes above a certain critical value, and is unstable otherwise. This critical value is an exact result of the interaction model and is found to be δc = π. For δ < δc , the unstable system expands in the radial direction, resulting in a radial second moment that grows with time t as t^(2/3). The results obtained bear important implications with regard to the implementation of arrays of semipermeable transport barriers in tokamaks, suggesting a threshold condition for their generation.
ER -