Effects of toroidal field ripple on suprathermal ions in tokamak plasmas

Robert James Goldston, H. H. Towner

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

78 Scopus citations

Abstract

Analytic calculations of three important effects of toroidal field ripple on suprathermal ions in tokamak plasmas are presented. In the first process, collisional ripple-trapping, ions become trapped in local magnetic wells near their banana tips owing to pitch-angle scattering as they traverse the ripple on barely unripple-trapped orbits. In the second process, collisionless ripple-trapping, ions are captured (again near a banana tip) owing to their finite orbits, which carry them out into regions of higher ripple. In the third process, banana-drift diffusion, fast-ion banana orbits fail to close precisely, due to a ripple-induced ‘e lingering period ’e banana tips. These three mechanisms lead to substantial radial transport of banana-trapped, neutral-beam-injected ions when the quantity a*n O/Nqsis of order unity or smaller.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)283-307
Number of pages25
JournalJournal of Plasma Physics
Volume26
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Oct 1981

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Condensed Matter Physics

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