Parametric Decay Instabilities during Electron Cyclotron Resonance Heating of Fusion Plasmas, Problems and Possibilities

Hannes Weber, Omar Maj, Emanuele Poli

2023 · EPJ Web of Conferences · vol. 277 · pp. 01003 · EDP Sciences · 10.1051/epjconf/202327701003

Abstract

A paraxial expansion of the (ensemble-averaged) Wigner function in the relevant wave kinetic equation for electron cyclotron waves in fluctuating plasmas allows the derivation of phase-space equations similar to the equations for the Gaussian beam parameters in the paraxial WKB method [G.V. Pereverzev, Phys. Plasmas 5 , 3529 (1998)]. This is relatively straightforward when the scattering of the wave field by density fluctuations can be described by a diffusion operator in refractive-index space. The general case is rather more complicated, yet we could find a heuristic construction of a paraxial Wigner function. Here we use a simple model, which has an analytical solution, to test both the theoretical validity of the diffusion approximation and the heuristic paraxial approach beyond the diffusion approximation.

BibTeX

@article{Weber_2023,
 title={Paraxial beams in fluctuating fusion plasmas: Diffusive limit and beyond},
 volume={277},
 ISSN={2100-014X},
 url={http://dx.doi.org/10.1051/epjconf/202327701003},
 DOI={10.1051/epjconf/202327701003},
 journal={EPJ Web of Conferences},
 publisher={EDP Sciences},
 author={Weber, Hannes and Maj, Omar and Poli, Emanuele},
 editor={Poli, E. and Liu, Y. and Udintsev, V.},
 year={2023},
 pages={01003} }