Particle-in-cell simulations of anomalous transport in a Penning discharge
- Princeton Plasma Physics Lab. (PPPL), Princeton, NJ (United States); Crow Radio and Plasma Science, Princeton, NJ (United States)
- Princeton Plasma Physics Lab. (PPPL), Princeton, NJ (United States)
- Princeton Univ., Princeton, NJ (United States)
- Univ. of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK (Canada)
Electrostatic particle-in-cell simulations of a Penning discharge are performed in order to investigate azimuthally asymmetric, spoke-like structures previously observed in experiments. Two-dimensional simulations show that for Penning-discharge conditions, a persistent nonlinear spoke-like structure forms readily and rotates in the direction of E × B and electron diamagnetic drifts. The azimuthal velocity is within about a factor of 2 of the ion acoustic speed. The spoke frequency follows the experimentally observed scaling with ion mass, which indicates the importance of ion inertia in spoke formation. The spoke provides enhanced (anomalous) radial electron transport, and the effective cross-field conductivity is several times larger than the classical (collisional) value. The level of anomalous current obtained in the simulations is in good agreement with the experimental data. Furthermore, the rotating spoke channels most of the radial current, observable by an edge probe as short pulses.
- Research Organization:
- Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL), Princeton, NJ (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- Grant/Contract Number:
- FA9550-17-1- 0010
- OSTI ID:
- 1464518
- Journal Information:
- Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 25, Issue 6; ISSN 1070-664X
- Publisher:
- American Institute of Physics (AIP)Copyright Statement
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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