Quasilinear theory of Brillouin resonances in rotating magnetized plasmas

Abstract

Both spin and orbital angular momentum can be exchanged between a rotating wave and a rotating magnetized plasma. Through resonances the spin and orbital angular momentum of the wave can be coupled to both the cyclotron rotation and the drift rotation of the particles. It is, however, shown that the Landau and cyclotron resonance conditions which classically describe resonant energy–momentum exchange between waves and particles are no longer valid in a rotating magnetized plasma column. In this case a new resonance condition which involves a resonant matching between the wave frequency, the cyclotron frequency modified by inertial effects and the harmonics of the guiding centre rotation is identified. A new quasilinear equation describing orbital and spin angular momentum exchanges through these new Brillouin resonances is then derived, and used to expose the wave-driven radial current responsible for angular momentum absorption.

Massive, long-lived electrostatic potentials in a rotating mirror plasma

“…Two promising techniques for driving and controlling electric fields in the interior of plasma are RF current drive and neutral beams 14 – 19 . In either case, the idea is to impose some torque on the interior of the plasma; there is a one-to-one mapping between the local torque and the cross-field current drive.…”

“…In this paper, we propose an alternative arrangement, in which the voltage drop is produced in the interior of the plasma using either wave-particle interactions or neutral beams 14 – 19 . Wave-particle interactions have been proposed to move ions across field lines for the purpose of achieving the alpha channeling effect, where the main purpose is to remove ions while extracting their energy.…”