Anomalous thermalization of fast ions in magnetized plasma

Abstract

A novel anomalous process causing the perpendicular energy of fast ions to be thermalized and lost on average to bulk ion heating, instead of classical slowing down and bulk electron heating, is investigated with particle-in-cell simulations. More than half of the fast ions are slowed down to the thermal ion level, although some are heated to twice their birth energy. The fast ion density perturbation is large. This process is excited by a new two-gyro-stream instability and may continually occur in a burning plasma. The implications for fusion ignition and fast ion confinement are assessed.