Alessandro, Geraldini
Independant Academic Fellow

Profile

Research

Overview

Research interests:

• Plasma-wall interaction and sheaths, with a primary focus on conditions relevant to the boundary of magnetic fusion devices: development of a gyrokinetic theory for non-circular and opening particle gyro-orbits; investigation of the sheath structure and stability; development of numerical tools and reduced analytical models to efficiently solve for sheath profiles and particle distribution functions; use of asymptotic methods and perturbation theory; development of direct iterative solvers of the steady-state Vlasov-Poisson system of equations; development of GYRAZE (https://github.com/alessandrogeraldini/GYRAZE), a code which solves the collisionless plasma-wall boundary layer using a gyrokinetic approach valid when the magnetic field is at grazing incidence with the wall (as in magnetic fusion devices).
• Study of heavy impurity transport in tokamaks with strong rotation and 3D magnetic perturbations, using the orbit-following Monte Carlo code VENUS-LEVIS (and VENUS-GPU); development and implementation of alternative orbit-following schemes, with potential applicability to the calculation of the transport of fast (energetic) particles in magnetic fusion devices.
• Magnetic islands in stellarators: derivation and implementation of an adjoint calculation of the derivative of magnetic island width for island sensitivity calculations.