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On Plasma Rotation Induced by Traveling Fast Alfvin Waves
Author(s) -
F. W. Perkins,
R.B. White,
Catherine S. Chan
Publication year - 2001
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Reports
DOI - 10.2172/788205
Subject(s) - physics , angular momentum , wavenumber , atomic physics , toroid , rotation (mathematics) , wavelength , computational physics , plasma , cyclotron , classical mechanics , optics , quantum mechanics , geometry , mathematics
Absorption of fast Alfven waves by the minority fundamental ion-cyclotron resonance, coupled with finite banana width physics, generates torque distributions and ultimately rotational shear layers in the bulk plasma, even when the toroidal wavenumber k(subscript ''phi'') = n/R of the fast wave vanishes (n=0) and cyclotron absorption introduces no angular momentum nor canonical angular momentum [F.W. Perkins, R.B. White, P.T. Bonoli, and V.S. Chan, Phys. Plasmas 8 (2001) 2181]. The present work extends these results to travelling waves with non-zero n where heating directly introduces angular momentum. Since tokamak fast-wave antennas have approximately one wavelength per toroidal field coil, the toroidal mode number n lies in the range n = 10-20, independent of machine size. A zero-dimensional analysis shows that the rotation rate arising from direct torque is comparable to that of the rotational shear layer and has the same scaling. Nondimensional rotation profiles for n = (-10, 10) show modest changes from the n = 0 case in the expected direction. For a balanced antenna spectrum, the nondimensional rotational profile (averaged over n = -10, 10) lies quite close to the n = 0 profile