NORSE: A solver for the relativistic non-linear Fokker-Planck equation for electrons in a homogeneous plasma

Abstract

Energetic electrons are of interest in many types of plasmas, however previous modeling of their properties has been restricted to the use of linear Fokker-Planck collision operators or non-relativistic formulations. Here, we describe a fully non-linear kinetic-equation solver, capable of handling large electric-field strengths (compared to the Dreicer field) and relativistic temperatures. This tool allows modeling of the momentum-space dynamics of the electrons in cases where strong departures from Maxwellian distributions may arise. As an example, we consider electron runaway in magnetic-confinement fusion plasmas and describe a transition to electron slide-away at field strengths significantly lower than previously predicted.

18 pages, 5 figures

References in corpus (3)

• Effective Critical Electric Field for Runaway-Electron Generation
• Differential Form of the Collision Integral for a Relativistic Plasma
• Quasi-linear analysis of the extraordinary electron wave destabilized by runaway electrons

Cited by in corpus (8)

• DREAM: a fluid-kinetic framework for tokamak disruption runaway electron simulations
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• SOFT: A synthetic synchrotron diagnostic for runaway electrons
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• Structure-preserving strategy for conservative simulation of relativistic nonlinear Landau--Fokker--Planck equation
• Runaway electron modelling in the self-consistent core European Transport Simulator, ETS
• Validity of models for Dreicer generation of runaway electrons in dynamic scenarios
• An asymptotic-preserving 2D-2P relativistic Drift-Kinetic-Equation solver for runaway electron simulations in axisymmetric tokamaks