Open AccessNumerical simulation of bump-on-tail instability with source and sink
Author(s) -
H. L. Berk,
M. Pekker,
B. N. Breǐzman
Publication year - 1995
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Reports
DOI - 10.2172/36789
Subject(s) - instability , sink (geography) , physics , plasma , tokamak , fusion , excitation , alpha particle , mechanics , computational physics , atomic physics , statistical physics , nuclear physics , quantum mechanics , linguistics , philosophy , cartography , geography
This paper presents results of the simulations of the bump-on-tail instability with a weak source and sink. This problem has been posed as a paradigm for the important problem in controlled fusion, that of the unstable excitation of Alfven waves in a tokamak by resonant energetic alpha particles. The source of alpha particles is the controlled fusion reaction produced by the background plasma and the sink is the collisional transport processes that slow down or scatter the energetic particles. The mathematical techniques that are needed to address this applied problem can be demonstrated in the much simpler bump-on-tail problem, which is explained in this paper