Gyrotropic guiding-center fluid theory for turbulent inhomogeneous magnetized plasma

Abstract

In this paper, a new fluid theory is given in the guiding-center and gyrotropic approximation which is derivable from the Vlasov-Maxwell equations. The theory includes the effect of wave-particle interactions for the weakly turbulent, weakly inhomogeneous, nonuniformly magnetized plasma, and it is applicable to a variety of space and laboratory plasmas. It is assumed that the turbulence is random and electrostatic, and that the velocity-space Fokker-Planck operator can be used to calculate the correlation functions that describe the wave-particle interactions. Conservation laws are derived that relate the low-order velocity moments of the particle distributions to the turbulence. The theory is based on the work of Hubbard [Proc. R. Soc. London, Ser. A 260, 114 (1961)] and Ichimaru and Rosenbluth [Phys. Fluids 13, 2778 (1970)]. In the work presented here, the idea is proposed that the fluid equations can be solved (1) by using measurements of the turbulence to specify the electric-field fluctuations; and (2) by using measurements of the low-order velocity moments to specify the initial and boundary conditions.