Theory of the Drift-Wave Instability at Arbitrary Collisionality

Abstract

A numerically efficient framework that takes into account the effect of the Coulomb collision operator at arbitrary collisionalities is introduced. Such model is based on the expansion of the distribution function on a Hermite-Laguerre polynomial basis, to study the effects of collisions on magnetized plasma instabilities at arbitrary mean-free path. Focusing on the drift-wave instability, we show that our framework allows retrieving established collisional and collisionless limits. At the intermediate collisionalities relevant for present and future magnetic nuclear fusion devices, deviations with respect to collision operators used in state-of-the-art turbulence simulation codes show the need for retaining the full Coulomb operator in order to obtain both the correct instability growth rate and eigenmode spectrum, which, for example, may significantly impact quantitative predictions of transport. The exponential convergence of the spectral representation that we propose makes the representation of the velocity space dependence, including the full collision operator, more efficient than standard finite difference methods.

arXiv comment7 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication on Physical Review Letters

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Cited by in corpus (11)

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• Local Gyrokinetic Collisional Theory of the Ion-Temperature Gradient Mode
• Linear Theory of Electron-Plasma Waves at Arbitrary Collisionality
• Development of Advanced Linearized Gyrokinetic Collision Operators Using a Moment Approach
• The collisional drift wave instability in steep density gradient regimes
• Influence of collisions on trapped-electron modes in tokamaks and low-shear stellarators
• Zero-electron-mass and quasi-neutral limits for bipolar Euler-Poisson systems
• Four-dimensional drift-kinetic model for scrape-off layer plasmas
• ALLIANCE: Spectral solver for kinetic plasma turbulence