Alfvén waves and rotation of collisional plasmas in tokamaks

Abstract

The effect of radio frequency fields on a plasma rotation in the edge (collisional) region of slightly rippled tokamaks is considered. The expressions for poloidal and toroidal velocities and for quasistationary radial electric fields are obtained as a function of absorbed rf power. The estimations of these quantities for the Phaedrus-T tokamak [N. Hershkovitz et al., 15th International Atomic Energy Agency Conference on Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion, Seville, 1994 (International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna, in press)] are also presented. It is shown that Alfvén waves can strongly modify the rotation velocities and radial electric fields in collisional regions of tokamak plasmas.