Collisionless pitch-angle scattering of runaway electrons

It is discovered that the tokamak field geometry generates a toroidicity induced broadening of the pitch-angle distribution of runaway electrons. This collisionless pitch-angle scattering is much stronger than the collisional scattering and invalidates the gyro-center model for runaway electrons. As a result, the energy limit of runaway electrons is found to be larger than the prediction of the gyro-center model and to depend heavily on the background magnetic field.