Extension of conventional MHD equilibrium theory to model the fast particle effects

Abstract

Two extensions of the conventional MHD model of plasma equilibrium in tokamaks and stellarators are considered: with anisotropic pressure and with toroidal rotation. In the both cases, the plasma pressures are no more surface functions, with deviations determined by the parallel force balance. For anisotropic plasma, the latter relates the parallel and perpendicular pressures (with respect to the magnetic field B), p‖ and p⊥. Several explicit solutions are discussed with different p‖ and p⊥, including the limits p‖≫p⊥ and p⊥≫p‖. The consequences of the perpendicular force balance are compared for static anisotropic and rotating isotropic plasmas with discussion of their relevance to experimental results.