A theory of fast wave absorption in a high-beta plasma is given. A reduced, second-order, ordinary differential equation has been used which includes all collisionless electron dissipation mechanisms and ion cyclotron damping over many harmonics. This is relevant to the high-harmonic fast wave heating scheme proposed by Ono [Phys. Plasmas 2, 4075 (…
We apply a fast wave approximation to the propagation of the fast wave across the magnetic field. This approximation involves replacing the hot plasma conductivity tensor by an approximation which reduces the problem to a second order differential equation. Such a procedure is particularly useful in the high harmonic regime, where many terms with t…