Quasilinear particle transport from gyrokinetic instabilities in general magnetic geometry

Abstract

The quasilinear particle flux arising from gyrokinetic instabilities is calculated in the electrostatic and collisionless approximation, keeping the geometry of the magnetic field arbitrary. In particular, the flux of electrons and heavy impurity ions is studied in the limit where the former move quickly, and the latter slowly, along the field compared with the mode frequency. Conclusions are drawn about how the particle fluxes of these species depend on the magnetic-field geometry, mode structure and frequency of the instability. Under some conditions, such as everywhere favourable or unfavourable magnetic curvature and modest temperature gradients, it is possible to make general statements about the fluxes independently of the details of the instability. In quasi-isodynamic stellarators with favourable bounce-averaged curvature for most particles, the particle flux is always outward if the temperature gradient is not too large, suggesting that it might be difficult to fuel such devices with gas puffing from the wall. In devices with predominantly unfavourable magnetic curvature, the particle flux can be inward, resulting in spontaneous density peaking in the centre of the plasma. In the limit of highly charged impurities, ordinary diffusion (proportional to the density gradient) dominates over other transport channels and the diffusion coefficient becomes independent of mass and charge. An estimate for the level of transport caused by magnetic-field fluctuations arising from ion-temperature-gradient instabilities is also given and is shown to be small compared with the electrostatic component.

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Cited by in corpus (4)

• Turbulent impurity transport simulations in Wendelstein 7-X plasmas
• Calculating the linear critical gradient for the ion-temperature-gradient mode in magnetically confined plasmas
• Effects of collisions on impurity transport driven by electrostatic modes
• Optimization of flux-surface density variation in stellarator plasmas with respect to the transport of collisional impurities