Turbulent equipartition theory of toroidal momentum pinch

Journal Article · Thu May 15 04:00:00 EDT 2008 · Physics of Plasmas

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.2839293· OSTI ID:21120346

Hahm, T S; Rewoldt, G ^[1]; Diamond, P H; Gurcan, O D ^[2]

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1. Princeton University, Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, P.O. Box 451, Princeton, New Jersey 08543 (United States)
2. Department of Physics, University of California, San Diego, 9500 Gilman Dr., La Jolla, California 92093-0424 (United States)

The mode-independent part of the magnetic curvature driven turbulent convective (TurCo) pinch of the angular momentum density [Hahm et al., Phys. Plasmas 14, 072302 (2007)], which was originally derived from the gyrokinetic equation, can be interpreted in terms of the turbulent equipartition (TEP) theory. It is shown that the previous results can be obtained from the local conservation of 'magnetically weighted angular momentum density', nm{sub i}U{sub parallel}R/B{sup 2}, and its homogenization due to turbulent flows. It is also demonstrated that the magnetic curvature modification of the parallel acceleration in the nonlinear gyrokinetic equation in the laboratory frame, which was shown to be responsible for the TEP part of the TurCo pinch of angular momentum density in the previous work, is closely related to the Coriolis drift coupling to the perturbed electric field. In addition, the origin of the diffusive flux in the rotating frame is highlighted. Finally, it is illustrated that there should be a difference in scalings between the momentum pinch originated from inherently toroidal effects and that coming from other mechanisms that exist in a simpler geometry.

• OSTI ID: 21120346
• Journal Information: Physics of Plasmas, Journal Name: Physics of Plasmas Journal Issue: 5 Vol. 15; ISSN PHPAEN; ISSN 1070-664X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
ACCELERATION
ANGULAR MOMENTUM
ELECTRIC FIELDS
EQUATIONS
GEOMETRY
NONLINEAR PROBLEMS
PINCH EFFECT
PLASMA
PLASMA CONFINEMENT
TURBULENT FLOW