Convective cells and transport in toroidal plasmas

Abstract

The properties of convective cells and the diffusion resulting from such cells are significantly influenced by an inhomogeneity in the external confining magnetic field, such as that in toroidal plasmas. It is shown, first, that the zero-frequency convective cell of the homogeneous medium (vortex) is transformed into the interchange flute mode in the presence of the field inhomogeneity. For stable interchange profiles, this has the effect of reducing the step size of the diffusion process. Second, in an inhomogeneous field, convective motions damp by magnetic pumping at a rate typically much faster than perpendicular viscous damping. This reduces the lifetime of the cell. The convective diffusion in the presence of a field inhomogeneity is estimated. For a thermal background, this diffusion is shown to be substantially smaller than classical diffusion. The influence of the field inhomogeneity is also shown to be significant for nonthermal backgrounds.