C. Wendell Horton, Jr.
Professor of Physics
Research Scientist
Institute for Fusion Studies

Links of interest

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_Wendell_Horton,_Jr
http://orion.ph.utexas.edu/~starpower
http://orion.ph.utexas.edu/~windmi

Research Interests

plasma physics transport, space and solar physics, laser-plasma physics, nuclear fusion research

Current Work

kinetic theory; nonlinear vortices; turbulent transport; space physics

Biography

• University of Texas at Austin, B.S., Physics
• University of California, San Diego, Ph.D., Physics, 1968

Dr. Horton is a widely known authority on plasma physics. Horton's core area of research is plasma transport. He has published a wide range of scientific works on plasma transport ranging from the fundamental symmetries in collisional and turbulent transport equations to exotic solition wave transport mechanics, and to vortices and coherent structures. .

The support and applications for his research are principally from the quest for plasma confinement for achieving thermonuclear fusion in the laboratory. Since 1987, Horton has devoted part of his research activities to transport in the Earth's magnetosphere. The magnetosphere is characterized by an extremely collisionless plasma making available new plasma transport regimes well beyond those exiting in laboratory plasmas.

Dr. Horton is also a Professor in the Department of Physics. Before coming to The University of Texas at Austin, he worked for two years at the International Centre for Theoretical Physics in Trieste, Italy. He is well known for his contributions to the theory of drift wave turbulence and anomalous transport in plasma confinement devices. He is the co-editor of two books published by John Wiley Interscience: one on statistical and nonlinear plasma physics (1982), and the other on thermal transport processes in tokamaks (1984). He is the co-author with Y. H. Ichikawa of a book "Chaos and Structures in Nonlinear Plasmas," (Word Scientific 1997). He published a major review article on plasma transport for Reviews of Modern Physics. He is author and co-author of over 300 refereed articles on plasma physics. His research is principally focused on the quest for plasma confinement for achieving thermonuclear fusion in the laboratory. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society.

Wendell Horton Research Group and Colleagues

Selected Publications that are representative of Horton's work include:

1. "On generation of Alfvénic-like fluctuations by drift wave-zonal flow system in large plasma device experiments," Horton, W.; Correa, C.; Chagelishvili, G. D.; Avsarkisov, V. S.; Lominadze, J. G.; Perez, J. C.; Kim, J.-H.; and Carter, T. A. Phys. Plasmas 16 092102 (2009).
2. "Laboratory experiments simulating solar wind driven magnetospheres," Brady, P.; Ditmire, T.; Horton, W.; Mays, M. L.; and Zakharov, Y. Phys. Plasmas, 16 043112 (2009).
3. “Reduction of chaotic particle transport driven by drift waves in sheared flows,” Marcus, F. A.; Caldas, I. L.; Guimaraes-Filho, Z. O.; Morrison, P. J.; Horton, W.; Kuznetsov, Yu. K.; and Nascimento, I. C. Phys. Plasmas 15, 112304 (2009).
4. “Electron thermal transport in Tokamak á Configuration Variable,” Asp, E.; Kim, J.-H.; Horton, W.; Porte, L.; Alberti,; Karpushov, S. A.; Martin, Y.; Sauter, O.; Turri, G. and the
   TCV Team Phys. Plasmas 15, 082317 (2008).
5. “Interaction between turbulence and a nonlinear tearing mode in the low beta regime,” Militello, F.; Waelbroeck, F. L.; Fitzpatrick, R.; and Horton, W. Phys. Plasmas 15, 050701 (2008).
6. “Active control of internal transport barrier formation due to off-axis electron-cyclotron heating in GAMMA 10 experiment,” Cho, T.; Pastukhov, V. P.; Horton, W.; Numakura, T.; Hirata, M.; Kohagura, J.; Chudin, N. V.; and Pratt,J. Phys. Plasmas 15, 056120 (2008).
7. “Zonal flow generation by internal gravity waves in the atmosphere,” Horton, W.; Kaladze, T. D.; Van Dam, J. W.; and Garner, T. W. J. Geophysical Research–Space Physics 113, A08312 (2008).
8. “Collisionless kinetic-fluid model of zonal flows in toroidal plasmas,” Sugama, H.; Watanabe, T.-H.; and Horton, W. Phys. Plasmas 14, 022502 (2007).
9. “Turbulent impulsive magnetic energy release from electron scale reconnection,” Horton, W.; Kim, J.-H.; Militello, F.; and Ottaviani, M. Phys. Plasmas 14, 012902 (2007).
10. “Self-sustaining vortex perturbations in smooth shear flows,” Kim, J.-H.; Perez, J. C.; Horton, W.; Chagelishvili, G. D.; Changishvili, R. G.; Lominadze, J. G.; and Bowman,J. C. Phys. Plasmas 13, 062304 (2006).
11. “Study of strong cross-field sheared flow with the vorticity probe in the Large Plasma Device,” Perez, J. C.; Horton, W.; Bengtson, R. D.; and Carter, T. Phys. Plasmas 13, 055701 (2006).
12. “Global energy confinement scaling predictions for the kinetically stabilized tandem mirror,”Pratt, J. and Horton, W. Phys. Plasmas 13, 042513 (2006).
13. “Nonlinear threemode interaction and drift-wave turbulence in a tokamak edge plasma,” Batista, A. M.; Caldas, I. L.; Lopes, S. R.; Viana, R. L.; Horton, W.; and Morrison, P. J. Phys. Plasmas 13, 042510 (2006).