About

Troy Carter is a Professor of Physics at the University of California, Los Angeles, currently on a leave of absence from UCLA. He was appointed Director of the Fusion Energy Division at Oak Ridge National Laboratory on July 1, 2024. His research focuses on waves, instabilities, turbulence, and transport in magnetically confined plasmas, motivated by the understanding of processes in space and astrophysical plasmas as well as the development of carbon-free electricity generation via nuclear fusion. Prof. Carter has led significant initiatives including the DOE FESAC Long Range Planning process, resulting in the 2021 report 'Powering the Future: Fusion and Plasmas.' He has served as the Director of the Basic Plasma Science Facility (BaPSF), a national user facility supported by DOE and NSF, and the Plasma Science and Technology Institute (PSTI) at UCLA. Recognized for his contributions, he is a Fellow of the APS and AAAS, and has received awards such as the APS DPP John Dawson Excellence in Plasma Physics Research Award and the Fusion Power Associates Leadership Award. His academic background includes BS degrees in Physics and Nuclear Engineering from North Carolina State University and a PhD in Astrophysical Sciences from Princeton University.

Research topics

• Nuclear physics
• Physics
• Atomic physics
• Classical mechanics
• Computational physics
• Optics
• Geophysics

Selected publications

• Experimental study of Alfvén wave reflection from an Alfvén-speed gradient relevant to the solar coronal holes

  Columbia Academic Commons (Columbia University) · 2026-03-12

  articleOpen access
  PublisherDOI

• Measurement of Energy Reduction of Inertial Alfvén Waves Propagating through Parallel Gradients in the Alfvén Speed

  Columbia Academic Commons (Columbia University) · 2026-03-12

  articleOpen access
  PublisherDOI

• Doppler Backscattering Data Analysis and Integrated Modeling with OMFIT

  Fusion Science & Technology · 2025-02-11 · 2 citations

  articleSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Accelerating the Fusion Workforce

  arXiv (Cornell University) · 2025-01-06 · 1 citations

  preprintOpen access

  The fusion energy research and development landscape has seen significant advances in recent years, with important scientific and technological breakthroughs and a rapid rise of investment in the private sector. The workforce needs of the nascent fusion industry are growing at a rate that academic workforce development programs are not currently able to match. This paper presents the findings of the Workforce Accelerator for Fusion Energy Development Conference held in Hampton, Virginia, United States of America (USA), on May 29-30 2024, which was funded by the US National Science Foundation (NSF). A major goal of the conference was to focus on bringing public and private stakeholders together to identify opportunities for partnership in fusion research and education with the goal of meeting the needs for a talented and diverse workforce. Representatives from industry, academia, and national laboratories participated in the conference through the preparation of white papers, presentations, and group discussions, and the production of recommendations to address the challenges facing the US fusion workforce.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Physics of beam-driven ion cyclotron emission in the large plasma device

  Nuclear Fusion · 2025-05-06 · 3 citations

  articleOpen access

  Abstract Ion cyclotron emission (ICE) is widely observed from spatially localised minority energetic ion populations in toroidal magnetically confined fusion (MCF) plasmas, both tokamaks and stellarators. Its spectral structure is typically regular with narrow suprathermal peaks, whose frequency separation matches a local energetic ion cyclotron frequency. Here we report the first computational (fully nonlinear self-consistent kinetic particle-in-cell code) and analytical (linear magnetoacoustic cyclotron instability (MCI)) studies of ICE observations from cylindrical plasmas contained in the Large Plasma Device (LAPD). Because LAPD is cylindrical, the plasma physics giving rise to the observed ICE spectrum necessarily excludes toroidal effects. Our approach, previously successful for toroidal plasma ICE, assumes slab geometry and hence is well adapted to LAPD. ICE from LAPD is strongly electrostatic, as distinct from electromagnetic, and is driven by 15 keV beam ions for which the ratio of perpendicular speed to the local Alfven speed, <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" overflow="scroll"> <mml:mrow> <mml:msub> <mml:mi>v</mml:mi> <mml:mo>⊥</mml:mo> </mml:msub> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>/</mml:mo> </mml:mrow> <mml:msub> <mml:mi>v</mml:mi> <mml:mi>A</mml:mi> </mml:msub> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> , is 0.15, lower than in MCF plasmas from which beam-driven ICE has previously been observed. Our results are in good agreement with these observations. There is congruence between simulated ICE spectra, obtained in the saturated nonlinear regime of our computations, and observed ICE spectra; the underlying physics is essentially the same as in toroidal plasmas; and there is alignment with linear analytical theory where appropriate. The present work establishes a mapping from the cylindrical LAPD ICE observations to toroidal MCF ICE observations. The LAPD spectra are instances of beam-driven MCI-type ICE in its sub-Alfvenic, predominantly electrostatic manifestation, which has precedents in MCF stretching back to the 1990s. An interesting corollary is that, for many purposes, ICE in toroidal MCF plasmas ‘might as well’ be occurring in a cylinder.

  PublisherDOI

• Accelerating the fusion workforce in the USA

  Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion · 2025-08-11 · 5 citations

  articleOpen accessCorresponding

  Abstract The fusion energy research and development landscape has seen significant advances in recent years, with important scientific and technological breakthroughs and a rapid rise of investment in the private sector. The workforce needs of the nascent fusion industry are growing at a rate that academic workforce development programs are not currently able to match. This paper presents the findings of the Workforce Accelerator for Fusion Energy Development Conference held in Hampton, Virginia, United States of America (USA), on 29–30 May 2024, which was funded by the National Science Foundation of the USA. A major goal of the conference was to focus on bringing public and private stakeholders together to identify opportunities for partnership in fusion research and education with the goal of meeting the needs for a talented and diverse workforce. Representatives from industry, academia, and national laboratories participated in the conference through the preparation of white papers, presentations, and group discussions, and the production of recommendations to address the challenges facing the fusion workforce in the USA.

  PublisherDOI

• Measurement of Energy Reduction of Inertial Alfvén Waves Propagating through Parallel Gradients in the Alfvén Speed

  The Astrophysical Journal · 2025-03-19

  articleOpen access

  Abstract We have studied the propagation of inertial Alfvén waves through parallel gradients in the Alfvén speed using the Large Plasma Device at the University of California, Los Angeles. The reflection and transmission of Alfvén waves through inhomogeneities in the background plasma are important for understanding wave propagation, turbulence, and heating in space, laboratory, and astrophysical plasmas. Here we present inertial Alfvén waves under conditions relevant to solar flares and the solar corona. We find that the transmission of the inertial Alfvén waves is reduced as the sharpness of the gradient is increased. Any reflected waves were below the detection limit of our experiment, and reflection cannot account for all of the energy not transmitted through the gradient. Our findings indicate that, for both kinetic and inertial Alfvén waves, the controlling parameter for the transmission of the waves through an Alfvén speed gradient is the ratio of the Alfvén wavelength along the gradient divided by the scale length of the gradient. Furthermore, our results suggest that an as-yet-unidentified damping process occurs in the gradient.

  PublisherDOI

• Direct measurement of the complex impedance of a whistler mode exciting loop antenna

  2025-05-05

  articleOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Wave coupling and propagation from a fast-wave antenna in the lower hybrid range of frequencies

  Journal of Plasma Physics · 2025-07-18

  articleOpen access

  A set of experiments were conducted on the LArge Plasma Device (LAPD) at UCLA to test the operational principles of a traveling wave antenna of the comb-line type. This antenna was designed to launch helicon waves (fast waves in the lower hybrid range of frequencies) on DIII-D. With the order-of-magnitude lower static magnetic field on LAPD, the antenna excites waves in a different regime. Whenever fast waves can propagate in LAPD, slow waves are also supported by the plasma so it is necessary to distinguish between the two cold-plasma branches in evaluating the effectiveness of the launcher. The results show that the launcher couples well to fast waves when the plasma supports fast-wave propagation; control of the principal imposed parallel wavenumber can be achieved through varying the launch frequency on the antenna within its bandwidth of operation; and that the launched waves exhibit strong directionality. We also investigate the role of the plasma profile and wave mode on the loading characteristics. Additionally, a comparison with full-wave modeling of the propagating waves is shown using both a cold-plasma model in COMSOL and a hot-plasma model in RFPisa, which obtain similar results in the present regime.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Direct Comparisons of Whistler Mode Excitation Between an Electric and Loop Dipole Antenna in a Laboratory Plasma

  2025-01-07

  article

  High energy electrons from either solar wind or from human activity may become trapped inside the Van Allen radiation belts or create an artificial radiation belt that can persist for long periods of time. Spacecraft flying through these belts are susceptible to damage from these trapped electrons. Whistler waves are known to precipitate electrons into the atmosphere, so a proposed solution is using spacecraft to carry compact electron beams or antennas to remediate these trapped electrons. This remediation effort has picked up momentum with knowledge gained from recent space missions such as the Van Allen Probe spacecraft which collected data on electron loss mechanisms. Additionally, the recently completed Demonstration and Science Experiment (DSX) satellite mission conducted experiments on the efficiency of injecting very low frequency (VFL) waves in space with their novel 82-meter tip to tip electric dipole antenna. However, based on these missions and existing laboratory studies, there is still no clear candidate as the best generator of whistler waves for the purposes of a spacecraft-based radiation belt remediation mission.

  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• Studies of turbulence, transport and flows in the Large Plasma Device

  NSF · $402k · 2009–2013

• Studies of Flows, Turbulence and Transport in the Large Plasma Device

  NSF · $525k · 2012–2015

• CAREER: Laboratory studies of large amplitude Alfven waves

  NSF · $705k · 2006–2012

Frequent coauthors

• S. Vincena

  University of California, Los Angeles

  42 shared

• Walter Gekelman

  University of California, Los Angeles

  39 shared

• Hantao Ji

  Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory

  36 shared

• B. Van Compernolle

  General Atomics (United States)

  33 shared

• M. Yamada

  Kanagawa University

  32 shared

• Shreekrishna Tripathi

  University of California, Los Angeles

  32 shared

• Patrick Pribyl

  California Science Center

  30 shared

• T. L. Rhodes

  General Atomics (United States)

  28 shared

Education

• B.S., Physics and Nuclear Engineering

  North Carolina State University

  1995

• Ph.D., Astrophysical Sciences

  Princeton University

  2001

Awards & honors

• Fellow of the APS
• Fellow of the AAAS
• APS DPP John Dawson Excellence in Plasma Physics Research Aw…
• Fusion Power Associates Leadership Award