Masahiro Wakatani

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Masahiro Wakatani ( Japanese 若谷 誠 宏 , Wakatani Masahiro ; born May 15, 1945 in Osaka prefecture , † January 9, 2003 in the city ​​of Nara ) was a Japanese plasma physicist .

Wakatani studied at the University of Kyoto with a bachelor's degree in 1968 and a master's degree in nuclear engineering in 1970. He then received his doctorate in electrical engineering with Ryohei Itatani in 1973, with a thesis on the theory of toroidal pinch arrangements ( Magnetohydrodynamic equilibrium and stability of toroidal pinches ). As a post-doctoral student he was at the Japanese Nuclear Energy Research Institute (Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute) in the nuclear fusion department until 1976 and in the plasma physics department at Nagoya University until 1978 . From 1978 he headed the theory department in the Heliotron E experiment. In 1978 he became an assistant professor and in 1985 he became a full professor at the Laboratory for Plasma Physics at Kyoto University. In 1996 he switched to a professorship in the Faculty of Energy Research and Nuclear Technology. He died of a brain haemorrhage at the age of 57.

Wakatani was a leading international theoretical plasma physicist. He is known for work in nonlinear magnetohydrodynamics (MHD), drift wave instabilities, stellarators, and dynamics of ion temperature gradient modes. He dealt in particular with heliotron experiments (stellarators with a spiral-shaped (helically) twisted magnetic field) and developed a simplified MHD theory for this.

With Akira Hasegawa he extended the Mima-Hasegawa equation for turbulent transport in plasmas to the Hasegawa-Wakatani equation (1983) and they showed an inverse cascade in the turbulence spectrum (i.e. from small to large wavelengths) and self-organization of turbulence.

In 1990 he became a Fellow of the American Physical Society . He was significantly involved in the Japanese exchange programs with the USA on fusion theory (Joint Institute for Fusion Theory, JIFT) and in this context edited two anthologies and organized many workshops.

He was married to a piano teacher and had three daughters.

Fonts

  • Stellarator and Heliotron Devices. Oxford University Press, 1998.
  • with Kyōji Nishikawa : Plasma Physics: basic theory with fusion applications. Springer, Berlin 1990, 3rd edition 2000.
  • with F. Bauer, O. Betancourt, R. Garabedian: The Beta equilibrium, stability and transport codes: application to the design of stellarators. Academic Press, 1987.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ A. Hasegawa, M. Wakatani: Plasma Edge Turbulence. Phys. Rev. Lett., Vol. 50, 1983, pp. 682-686.
  2. ^ A. Hasegawa, M. Wakatani: Self-organization of electrostatic turbulence in a cylindrical plasma. Phys. Rev., Lett., Vol. 59, 1987, p. 1581.
personal data
SURNAME Wakatani, Masahiro
ALTERNATIVE NAMES 若谷 誠 宏 (Japanese)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Japanese physicist
DATE OF BIRTH May 15, 1945
PLACE OF BIRTH Osaka prefecture
DATE OF DEATH January 9, 2003
Place of death Nara , Nara Prefecture