A multi-species collisional operator for full-F gyrokinetics

Abstract

A linearized multi-species collision operator has been developed for an efficient implementation in gyrokinetic codes. This operator satisfies the main expected properties: particle, momentum, and energy conservation, and existence of an H-theorem. A gyrokinetic version is then calculated, which involves derivatives with respect to the gyrocenter position, parallel velocity, and magnetic momentum. An isotropic version in the velocity space can be constructed for the specific problem of trace impurities colliding with a main species. A simpler version that involves derivatives with parallel velocity only has been developed. This reduced version has been implemented in the GYSELA gyrokinetic code, and is shown to comply with particle, momentum, and energy conservation laws. Moreover, the interspecies relaxation rates for momentum and energy agree very well with the theoretical values.