Diffusion induced by cyclotron resonance heating

Abstract

The wave induced particle transport during the ion cyclotron resonance heating is studied in collisionless toroidal plasmas. It is shown that the previously neglected non-conservation of the toroidal angular momentum ϕ caused by the toroidal wave component Eϕ, is necessary to allow particle diffusion and yields the leading diffusive contribution. While the induced ion transport for the RF power in contemporary experiments is of the order of the neoclassical value, that of fast alpha particles is quite large if resonance is present.