Abstract
Scaling laws for the transport and heating of trace heavy ions in low-frequency magnetized plasma turbulence are derived and compared with direct numerical simulations. The predicted dependences of turbulent fluxes and heating on ion charge and mass number are found to agree with numerical results for both stationary and differentially rotating plasmas. Heavy ion momentum transport is found to increase with mass, and heavy ions are found to be preferentially heated, implying a mass-dependent ion temperature for very weakly collisional plasmas and for partially ionized heavy ions in strongly rotating plasmas.
Original language | English (US) |
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Article number | 185003 |
Journal | Physical review letters |
Volume | 109 |
Issue number | 18 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Oct 31 2012 |
Externally published | Yes |
All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- General Physics and Astronomy