Neoclassical toroidal plasma viscosity in bounce-transit and drift resonance regimes in tokamaks

Abstract

Neoclassical toroidal plasma viscosity in the bounce-transit and drift resonance regimes is calculated using a version of the drift kinetic equation that encompasses the physics of the nonlinear trapping and quasilinear plateau regimes in tokamaks. It is demonstrated that the mirror-force like term controls the transition between these two regimes. When the effective collision frequency is larger than the mirroring or the nonlinear bounce frequency, the quasilinear regime prevails; otherwise, the nonlinear trapping regime reigns. The demonstration is accomplished by using the Eulerian approach and is beyond the grasp of the method of the integration along the unperturbed orbit in solving the drift kinetic equation. The neoclassical toroidal plasma viscosity in the quasilinear plateau regime is calculated. Approximate analytic expressions for the neoclassical toroidal plasma viscosity that include the asymptotic limits of the nonlinear trapping and quasilinear regimes are presented to facilitate thermal and energetic alpha particle transport modeling in tokamaks.