Massively Parallel Gyrokinetic Simulation in Magnetic Fusion Plasmas

Nuclear magnetic fusion as a virtually limitless energy source holds a promising future for human being. One of the key problems in magnetic fusion research is the turbulent transport of strongly magnetized plasmas. Massively parallel gyrokinetic simulation as a powerful tool has recently made tremendous progress in understanding the complicated nonlinear turbulent behavior of the hot plasmas in a fusion device such as tokamak. It is shown by these large scale simulations that the heat and particle transport arising from the small electromagnetic fluctuations can approach to the anomalous transport level observed in fusion experiments. The underlying transport mechanism could be completely different between ions and electrons in the plasmas. The basic idea of gyrokinetic simulation and its numeric implementation will be introduced and a few examples will also be illustrated on how these sophisticated simulations can help understand the electromagnetic turbulence in fusion plasmas.