T. Fülöp G. Pokol P. Helander M. Lisak
Magnetosonic-whistler waves may be destabilized by runaway electrons both in fusion and astrophysical plasmas. A linear instability growth rate of these waves in the presence of a runaway avalanche is calculated both perturbatively and by numerical solution of the full dispersion equation. The local threshold of the instability depends on the fract…
PublishedH. Smith P. Helander L.-G. Eriksson T. Fülöp
The usual calculation of Dreicer [Phys. Rev. 115 , 238 (1959); 117 , 329 (1960)] generation of runaway electrons assumes that the plasma is in a steady state. In a tokamak disruption this is not necessarily true since the plasma cools down quickly and the collision time for electrons at the runaway threshold energy can be comparable to the cooling …
PublishedP. Helander H. Smith T. Fülöp L.-G. Eriksson
The distribution function of suprathermal electrons in a slowly cooling plasma is calculated by an asymptotic expansion in the cooling rate divided by the collision frequency. Since the collision frequency decreases with increasing velocity, a high-energy tail forms in the electron distribution function as the bulk population cools down. Under cert…
PublishedP. Helander T. Fülöp Peter J. Catto
The transport of angular momentum due to neutral atoms in the tokamak edge is calculated and shown to be sensitive to the poloidal location of the neutrals. In the absence of external momentum sources, the edge plasma is predicted to rotate spontaneously in the opposite direction to the plasma current, at a speed proportional to the radial ion temp…
PublishedT. Fülöp P. Helander Peter J. Catto
Neutral atoms in the tokamak edge affect the electric field and plasma flow through charge exchange. Here, it is shown that these effects depend sensitively on the poloidal location of the atoms. It is found that the radial electric field and toroidal flow velocity in a collisional edge plasma are largest if the atoms are concentrated on the inboar…
PublishedT. Fülöp Peter J. Catto P. Helander
Neutral atoms can significantly influence the physics of tokamak edge plasmas, e.g., by affecting the radial electric field and plasma flow there, which may, in turn, be important for plasma confinement. Earlier work [Fulop et al. , Phys. Plasmas 5 , 3969 (1998)], assuming short mean-free path neutrals and Pfirsch–Schluter ions, has shown that th…
PublishedT. Fülöp P. Helander
In conventional neoclassical theory, the density and temperature gradients are not allowed to be as steep as frequently observed in the tokamak edge. In this paper the theory of neoclassical transport in a collisional, impure plasma is extended to allow for steeper profiles than normally assumed. The dynamics of highly charged impurity ions then be…
PublishedT. Fülöp P. Helander
The theory of neoclassical transport in an impure toroidal plasma is extended to allow for larger pressure and temperature gradients and faster toroidal rotation than are usually considered. Under these conditions, the density of heavy impurities is not constant on flux surfaces, and the neoclassical transport becomes a nonlinear function of the gr…
PublishedT. Fülöp Peter J. Catto P. Helander
Ion plasma flow and flow shear just inside the last closed flux surface of a tokamak can be strongly altered by neutral atoms and anomalous effects. For a collisional edge, neutrals modify the standard Pfirsch–Schluter expression for the parallel ion flow through the strong coupling provided by ion–neutral collisions. Even for rather small neut…
PublishedT. Fülöp Peter J. Catto P. Helander
Bulk ion flow can be modified by ion–neutral interactions in the edge region of tokamaks where neutral atoms are abundant. In this region, the standard neoclassical expression for the ion flow is not consistent with the experimental observations. Previous work in the plateau regime [Valanju et al., Phys. Fluids B 4, 2675 (1992)] suggests that the…
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