Neoclassical Transport Including Collisional Nonlinearity

Journal Article · Fri Jun 10 00:00:00 EDT 2011 · Physical Review Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVLETT.106.235003· OSTI ID:21567452

Candy, J; Belli, E A ^[1]

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1. General Atomics, P.O. Box 85608, San Diego, California 92186-5608 (United States)

In the standard {delta}f theory of neoclassical transport, the zeroth-order (Maxwellian) solution is obtained analytically via the solution of a nonlinear equation. The first-order correction {delta}f is subsequently computed as the solution of a linear, inhomogeneous equation that includes the linearized Fokker-Planck collision operator. This equation admits analytic solutions only in extreme asymptotic limits (banana, plateau, Pfirsch-Schlueter), and so must be solved numerically for realistic plasma parameters. Recently, numerical codes have appeared which attempt to compute the total distribution f more accurately than in the standard ordering by retaining some nonlinear terms related to finite-orbit width, while simultaneously reusing some form of the linearized collision operator. In this work we show that higher-order corrections to the distribution function may be unphysical if collisional nonlinearities are ignored.

• OSTI ID: 21567452
• Journal Information: Physical Review Letters, Vol. 106, Issue 23; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.106.235003; (c) 2011 American Institute of Physics; ISSN 0031-9007
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
ANALYTICAL SOLUTION
ASYMPTOTIC SOLUTIONS
COLLISIONS
CORRECTIONS
DISTRIBUTION FUNCTIONS
FOKKER-PLANCK EQUATION
NEOCLASSICAL TRANSPORT THEORY
NONLINEAR PROBLEMS
PLASMA
SOLUTIONS
WIDTH
CHARGED-PARTICLE TRANSPORT THEORY
DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS
DIMENSIONS
DISPERSIONS
EQUATIONS
FUNCTIONS
HOMOGENEOUS MIXTURES
MATHEMATICAL SOLUTIONS
MIXTURES
PARTIAL DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS
TRANSPORT THEORY