Programme 2026

Joint Varenna-Lausanne International Workshop on the Theory of Fusion Plasmas

Villa Monastero, Varenna, Italy — 21–25 September 2026

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Sunday, 20 September 2026

16:00 – 19:00 Registration in Villa Monastero

Monday, 21 September 2026

9:00 Welcome — G. Gorini and J. Graves

Session 1: Fundamental Theory of Turbulence and Transport

9:10 I-1
A. Schekochihin
Tutorial: "As simple as possible but not simpler": physics of turbulence and transport via reduced fluid models
9:55 I-2
G. Acton
Computational and Theoretical Advances for Zonal Flows in Stellarators
10:40 Coffee break
11:10 I-3
J. Burby
A statistical equilibrium model for stellarators
11:55 I-4
P. Costello
Constrained optimal modes: tightening thermodynamic bounds on the linear growth rate of microinstabilities
12:40 Group photo in Villa Monastero's garden
12:50 Lunch

Session 2: Tokamak Plasma Regimes

15:00 I-5
N. Rivals
Understanding of the X-Point Radiator regimes in tokamaks through an example in the WEST device
15:45 I-6
F. Maiden
The theory behind solenoid-free microwave driven start-up in tokamaks
16:30 Coffee break
17:00 I-7
K. Zhang
Turbulence in the Quasicontinuous Exhaust Regime
17:45 End
19:30 Welcome Party — Blanco Lounge Bar, Varenna

Tuesday, 22 September 2026

Session 3: Fast Ions, Runaways and Heat Transport in Stellarators

9:00 I-8
T. Foster
Analytical formulas for alpha-particle orbits in stellarators
9:45 I-9
M. Fitzgerald
Conservation and destruction of alpha particle invariants in optimized stellarators
10:30 Coffee break
11:00 I-10
I. Ekmark
Runaway electrons in stellarators: Unlikely or unavoidable
11:45 I-11
H. Thienpondt
Nonlinear critical gradients in W7-X: Insights from massive gyrokinetic simulations and experimental measurements of turbulent heat transport
12:30 Lunch

14:30 – 16:00   Poster session 1: P1 – P14

16:00 – 16:30   Coffee break

16:30 – 18:00   Poster session 2: P15 – P28

Wednesday, 23 September 2026

Session 4: Microturbulent Transport and Gyrokinetics in Tokamaks

9:00 I-12
H. Sun
The unusual dynamics of turbulent transport in spherical tokamaks with large field line pitch angle
9:45 I-13
L. De Gianni
Understanding Trapped Electron Modes in negative triangularity
10:30 I-14
S. Liu
Development of the Gyrokinetic-MHD Hybrid Code cuGMEC and Its Nonlinear Simulations of Alpha Particle-driven Alfvén Eigenmodes in ITER
11:15 Coffee break
11:35 I-15
S. Choudhary
Gyrokinetic Transport in flat-Temperature Tokamak Plasmas
12:20 I-16
J. McClenaghan
Integrating Gyrokinetic Flux Predictions with Ideal MHD Stability Boundaries
13:05 Lunch
19:30 Conference dinner — Ristorante La Breva, Lierna (dinner at 20:00, bus at 19:30)

Thursday, 24 September 2026

Session 5: Stellarator Optimisation

9:00 I-17
J. Velasco
Tutorial: New avenues for stellarator design enabled by piecewise omnigenity
9:45 I-18
W. Sengupta
Periodic Korteweg-de Vries soliton potentials generate quasisymmetric magnetic field strength in both vacuum and finite plasma-beta equilibrium
10:30 Coffee break
11:00 I-19
A. Goodman
Searching for SQuIDs: Developments in the optimisation of Stable Quasi-Isodynamic Designs
11:45 I-20
P. Jurašić
Designing stellarator island divertors by controlling the island flux
12:30 Lunch

14:30 – 16:00   Poster session 3: P29 – P42

16:00 – 16:30   Coffee break

16:30 – 18:00   Poster session 4: P43 – P56

Friday, 25 September 2026

Session 6: Fast Ion and Nonlinear Physics in Tokamaks

9:00 I-21
H. Cai
Cross-scale Interaction between Microturbulence and Fishbone in Fusion Plasmas
9:45 I-22
D. Korger
A nonlinear Schrödinger equation for the description of geodesic-acoustic-modes in tokamaks
10:30 Coffee break
11:00 I-23
J. Wang
Comprehensive simulations of bursting shear Alfvén waves in tokamaks and their control via phase space engineering with ICRF waves
11:45 I-24
E. G. Devin
Nonlinear evolution of strongly driven perturbative kinetic instabilities
12:30 Closing session
12:45 End