Effect of inertia on losses from a plasma in toroidal equilibrium

Abstract

We investigate theoreticall y the MHD equilibrium of a resistive, low-density plasma in a model stellarator field. Th e effect of inertia on plasma motion is treated exactly and its influence on plasma loss determined. The results are valid for arbitrary aspect ratio. For the existence of a stationary equilibrium we show that there are two unconnected regions of solution, described in terms of the mass fluxes the long and the short way within a magnetic surface. For the region containing the case of the well-known classical resistive diffusion we argue that the increase in plasma loss due to inertia is strongly limited and does not appreciably exceed the classical diffusion rate.