Zhihong Lin

 

Chancellor’s Professor, Department of Physics and Astronomy

University of California, Irvine, CA 92697

Email: zhihongl@uci.edu; Tel: (949) 287-3922

Publications

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I study the physics of high temperature plasma, the fourth state of matter, which constitutes 99% of the visible universe. Plasma physics is the scientific foundation for fusion energy, which powers stars such as the Sun and promises for a clean and unlimited energy source for humanity. I use advanced simulations on the world’s fastest supercomputers to study turbulent transport and confinement of energetic particles in magnetic fusion plasmas, which are some of the most important scientific challenges in burning plasma experiment ITER, the crucial next step in the quest for the fusion energy and the biggest international science collaboration.

 

Our flagship fusion code GTC has been developed jointly by a collaborative team including my group at UCI and collaborators in the ITER partnership, and extensively utilized to simulate magnetic fusion experiments including DIII-D, NSTX-U, ITER, JET, EAST, KSTAR, HL-2A, MAST, & ADITYA-U tokamaks, W7-X & LHD stellarators, and C2 field-reversed configuration. These first-principles massively parallel simulations and associated theory have led to physics discovery in turbulence self-regulation by zonal flows, zonal flow damping, neoclassical transport, transport scaling, wave-particle decorrelation, energetic particle transport, electron transport, nonlinear dynamics of Alfven eigenmodes, localization of Alfven eigenmodes, driftwave stability, transport bifurcation in fusion plasmas.                            

 

Selected Recent Publications:

 

·        Global linear drift-wave eigenmode structures on flux surfaces in stellarators: ion temperature gradient mode, H. Zhu, H. Chen, Z. Lin, and A. Bhattacharjee, Nuclear Fusion 66, 016011 (2026).

·        Geometry effects on zonal flow dynamics and turbulent transport in optimized stellarators, Haotian Chen, Xishuo Wei, Hongxuan Zhu, and Zhihong Lin, Nuclear Fusion 65, 074002 (2025).

·        Trapped electron mode in a quasi-isodynamic stellarator, Javier H. Nicolau, Xishuo Wei, Pengfei Liu, Gyungjin Choi, and Zhihong Lin, Nuclear Fusion 65, 086049 (2025).

·        Collisionless zonal-flow dynamics in quasi-symmetric stellarators, Hongxuan Zhu, Z. Lin, and A. Bhattacharjee, J. Plasma Physics 91, E28 (2025).

·        Zonal flow suppression of turbulent transport in the optimized stellarators W7-X and QSTK, Abhishek Tiwari, Joydeep Das, Jaya Kumar Alageshan, Gareth Roberg-Clark, Gabriel Plunk, Pavlos Xanthopoulos, Sarveshwar Sharma, Zhihong Lin, and Animesh Kuley, Plasma Phys. Contr. Fusion 67, 085025 (2025).

·        Gyrokinetic simulations of effects of magnetic islands on microturbulence in KSTAR, Xishuo Wei, Javier H Nicolau, Gyungjin Choi, Zhihong Lin, Seong-Moo Yang, SangKyeun Kim, WooChang Lee, Chen Zhao, Tyler Cote, JongKyu Park, Dmitri Orlov, Nuclear Fusion 65, 026026 (2025).

·        Transfer Learning Nonlinear Plasma Dynamic Transitions in Low Dimensional Embeddings via Deep Neural Networks, Zhe Bai, Xishuo Wei, William Tang, Leonid Oliker, Zhihong Lin, Samuel Williams, Machine Learning: Science and Technology 6, 025015 (2025).

·        Synergistic effect of radial electric field and magnetic shear on ion temperature gradient mode, Qien Jing, Yuehao Ma, Zhihong Lin, Huishan Cai, Nuclear Fusion 65, 106037 (2025).

·        Global gyrokinetic simulations of kinetic ballooning mode in NSTX-U plasmas, Tajinder Singh, Tariq Rafiq, Eugenio Schuster, Zhihong Lin, Animesh Kuley, Nuclear Fusion 65, 106039 (2025).

·        Saturation of fishbone instability through zonal flows driven by energetic particle transport in tokamak plasmas, G. Brochard, C. Liu, X. Wei, W. Heidbrink, Z. Lin, M.V. Falessi, F. Zonca, Z. Qiu, N. Gorelenkov, C. Chrystal, X. Du, J. Bao, A. R. Polevoi, M. Schneider, S. H. Kim, S. D. Pinches, P. Liu, J. H. Nicolau, H. Lutjens, and the ISEP group, Nuclear Fusion 65, 016052 (2025).

·        Effects of Zonal Fields on Energetic-Particle Excitations of Reversed Shear Alfven Eigenmode: Simulation and Theory, Liu Chen, Pengfei Liu, Ruirui Ma, Zhihong Lin, Zhiyong Qiu, Wenhao Wang, and Fulvio Zonca, Nuclear Fusion 65, 016018 (2025).

·        Saturation of fishbone instability by self-generated zonal flows in tokamak plasmas, G. Brochard, C. Liu, X. Wei, W. Heidbrink, Z. Lin, N. Gorelenkov, J. Bao, A. R. Polevoi, M. Schneider, S. H. Kim, S. D. Pinches, P. Liu, J. H. Nicolau, and H. Lutjens, Phys. Rev. Lett. 132, 075101 (2024).

·        Linear gyrokinetic simulations of Toroidal Alfvén Eigenmodes in the Mega-Amp Spherical Tokamak, H.H. Wong, H. Huang, P. Liu, Y. Yu, X. Wei, G. Brochard, N. Fil, Z. Lin, M. Podesta, P.J. Bonofiglo, K.G. McClements, C.A. Michael, N.A. Crocker, L. Garzotti, and T.A. Carter, Phys. Plasmas 31, 112508 (2024).

·        A gyrokinetic simulation model for 2D equilibrium potential in the scrape-off layer of a field-reversed configuration, W. H. Wang, X. S. Wei, Z. Lin, C. Lau, S. Dettrick, T. Tajima, Phys. Plasmas 31, 072507 (2024).

·        Excited ion-scale turbulence by a magnetic island in fusion plasmas, Wenyang Li, Jingchun Li, Z. Lin, J. Q. Dong, J. T. Luo, & Yong Liu, Scientific Reports 14, 25362 (2024).

·        Gyrokinetic simulations of electrostatic microturbulence in ADITYA-U tokamak with argon impurity, Tajinder Singh, Kajal Shah, Deepti Sharma, Joydeep Ghosh, Kumarpalsinh A. Jadeja, Rakesh L. Tanna, M. B. Chowdhuri, Zhihong Lin, Abhijit Sen, Sarveshwar Sharma, Animesh Kuley, Nuclear Fusion 64, 086038 (2024).

·        Effects of hydrogen isotope species on ITG microturbulence in LHD, Y. Q. Qin, Y. C. Chen, G. Y. Sun, J. Nicolau, and Z. Lin, Plasma Phys. Contr. Fusion 66, 085004 (2024).

·        Disappearance of Dimits Shift in Realistic Fusion Reactor Plasmas with Negative Magnetic Shear, Dingkun Yang, Shengming Li, Yong Xiao, and Zhihong Lin, Nuclear Fusion 64, 106045 (2024).

·        Cross-scale Interaction between Microturbulence and Meso-scale Reversed Shear Alfvén Eigenmodes in DIII-D Plasmas, P. Liu, X. Wei, Z. Lin, W. W Heidbrink, G. Brochard, G. J. Choi, J. H. Nicolau, and W. Zhang, Nuclear Fusion 64, 076007 (2024).

·        Global gyrokinetic simulations of electrostatic microturbulent transport in LHD stellarator with boron impurity, Tajinder Singh, Javier H. Nicolau, Federico Nespoli, Gen Motojima, Zhihong Lin, Abhijit Sen, Sarveshwar Sharma, and Animesh Kuley, Nuclear Fusion 64, 016007 (2024).