Papers and talks

This page contains links to some of the talks I have have given, papers I have been involved in and other materials I have written over the years.

My PhD thesis

“Experimental Data Analysis Techniques for Validation of Tokamak Impurity Transport Simulations.” Check out the full document, my thesis defense slides, and the source code for all of my analysis. (The emoticons in the slides are a reference to Prof. Jeff Freidberg’s famous recurring question “Does this result make you happy or sad?”)

First-author publications

M. A. Chilenski, M. J. Greenwald, A. E. Hubbard, et al. “Experimentally testing the dependence of momentum transport on second derivatives using Gaussian process regression.” Submitted to Nuclear Fusion, 2017. Preprint available.

M. A. Chilenski, I. C. Faust and J. R. Walk. “eqtools: Modular, Extensible, Open-Source, Cross-Machine Python Tools for Working with Magnetic Equilibria.” Computer Physics Communications 210, 155-162, 2017. Preprint available.

M. A. Chilenski, M. Greenwald, Y. Marzouk, et al. “Improved profile fitting and quantification of uncertainty in experimental measurements of impurity transport coefficients using Gaussian process regression.” Nuclear Fusion 55(2), 023012, 2015. Preprint available.

Co-authored publications

B. LaBombard, A. Kuang, D. Brunner, et al. “High-field side scrape-off layer investigation: plasma profiles and impurity screening behavior in near-double-null configurations.” Nuclear Materials and Energy (in press), 2016.

F. M. Poli, P. T. Bonoli, M. Chilenski, et al. “Experimental and modeling uncertainties in the validation of Lower Hybrid Current Drive.” Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion 58(9), 095001, 2016.

A. Loarte, M. L. Reinke, A. R. Polevoi, et al. “Tungsten impurity transport experiments in Alcator C-Mod to address high priority research and development for ITER.” Physics of Plasmas 22(5), 056117, 2015.

J. E. Rice, M. L. Reinke, C. Gao, et al. “Core impurity transport in Alcator C-Mod L-, I- and H-mode plasmas.” Nuclear Fusion 55(3), 033014, 2015.

A. E. White, N. T. Howard, A. J. Creely, et al. “Nonlinear gyrokinetic simulations of the I-mode high confinement regime and comparisons with experiment.” Physics of Plasmas 22(5), 056109, 2015.

C. Gao, J. E. Rice, H. J. Sun, et al. “Non-local heat transport in Alcator C-Mod ohmic L-mode plasmas.” Nuclear Fusion 54(8), 083025, 2014.

J. E. Rice, M. L. Reinke, J. M. A. Ashbourn, et al. “X-ray observations of Ca19+, Ca18+ and satellites from Alcator C-Mod tokamak plasmas.” Journal of Physics B: Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics 47(7), 075701, 2014.

M. Greenwald, A. Bader, S. Baek, et al. “Overview of experimental results and code validation activities at Alcator C-Mod.” Nuclear Fusion 53(10), 104004, 2013.

J. E. Rice, C. Gao, M. L. Reinke, et al. “Non-local heat transport, rotation reversals and up/down impurity density asymmetries in Alcator C-Mod ohmic L-mode plasmas.” Nuclear Fusion 53(3), 033004, 2013.

T. R. Jarboe, C. Akcay, M. A. Chilenski, et al. “Recent results from the HIT-SI experiment.” Nuclear Fusion 51(6), 063029, 2011.

Conference talks and posters

Reassessment of impurity transport coefficients in Alcator C-Mod: A talk presented at the 2016 American Physical Society Division of Plasma Physics conference in San Jose, CA. Details the use of MulitNest to infer the coefficients describing how impurity particles move in a magnetically confined plasma. In particular, using synthetic data it is shown that rigorous model selection is necessary to recover the true profiles.

Improved analysis of impurity transport coefficient profiles: A poster presented at the 2015 American Physical Society Division of Plasma Physics conference in Savannah, GA. Details the use of advanced Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) techniques to infer impurity transport coefficients.

Bayesian inference of impurity transport coefficient profiles: A talk presented at the 2015 Transport Task Force workshop in Salem, MA. Details a Bayesian framework for inferring impurity transport coefficients.

Towards a Bayesian analysis of impurity transport data: A talk presented at the 2015 International Atomic Energy Agency Technical Meeting on Fusion Data Processing, Validation and Analysis in Nice, France. Details work on the development of a Bayesian framework for inferring impurity transport coefficients.

Collisionality dependence of impurity transport in Alcator C-Mod H-modes: A talk presented at the 2014 American Physical Society Division of Plasma Physics conference in New Orleans, LA. Details experimental observations of how impurity particles move in high-performance magnetically confined plasmas. Also presents the use of non-stationary Gaussian processes to infer spatial derivatives of plasma profiles.

Improved profile fitting and uncertainty quantification: applications to impurity and momentum transport: A talk presented at the 2014 Joint EU-US Transport Task Force workshop in Culham, UK. Describes the use of non-stationary Gaussian processes for inferring plasma profiles and their first and second spatial derivatives.

Improved profile fitting and uncertainty quantification using Gaussian process regression: A poster presented at the 2014 Transport Task Force workshop in San Antonio, TX. Describes the use of non-stationary Gaussian processes for inferring plasma profiles and their spatial derivatives.

Uncertainty quantification of experimentally-derived quantities: A poster presented at the 2013 American Physical Society Division of Plasma Physics conference in Denver, CO. Introduces the use of non-stationary Gaussian processes for inferring plasma profiles and their spatial derivatives and shows initial applications to the inference of impurity transport coefficients.

Investigation of core impurity transport in Alcator C-Mod EDA H-mode plasmas: A poster presented at the 2013 Transport Task Force workshop in Santa Rosa, CA. Describes experimental observations of how impurity particles move in high-performance magnetically confined plasmas and shows initial work on profile fitting which ultimately led to the decision to use non-stationary Gaussian processes to infer plasma profiles.

Investigation of impurity transport in Alcator C-Mod using laser blow-off impurity injection: A poster presented at the 2012 American Physical Society Division of Plasma Physics conference in Providence, RI. Describes experimental observations of how impurity particles move in high-performance magnetically confined plasmas.

Upgraded SXR/EUV spectroscopy capabilities for Alcator C-Mod: A poster presented at the 2011 American Physical Society Division of Plasma Physics conference in Salt Lake City, UT. Describes a new extreme ultraviolet spectrometer fielded on the Alcator C-Mod tokamak.

Lectures and other educational materials

Introduction to uncertainty in measurement: A set of lecture notes on experimental uncertainties and linear regression I developed for the MIT course 22.071: Electronics, Signals and Measurement.

Build your own Geiger-Müller counter: The instruction manual for the educational Geiger counter I developed. Board files and parts list available on request.