Non-isomorphic radial wavenumber dependencies of residual zonal flows in ion and electron Larmor radius scales, and effects of initial parallel flow and electromagnetic potentials in a circular tokamak

Abstract

Radial wavenumber dependencies of the residual zonal potential for E × B flow in a circular, large aspect ratio tokamak is investigated by means of the collisionless gyrokinetic simulations of Rosenbluth–Hinton (RH) test and the semi-analytic approach using an analytic solution of the gyrokinetic equation Rosenbluth and Hinton (1998 Phys. Rev. Lett. 80 724). By increasing the radial wavenumber from an ion Larmor radius scale to an electron Larmor radius scale , the well-known level is retained, while the level remains O(1) when the wavenumber is decreased from the electron to the ion Larmor radius scale, if physically same adiabatic assumption is presumed for species other than the main species that is treated kinetically. The conclusion is not modified by treating both species kinetically, so that in the intermediate scale between the ion and electron Larmor radius scale it seems difficult to determine the level uniquely. The toroidal momentum conservation property in the RH test is also investigated by including an initial parallel flow in addition to the perpendicular flow. It is shown that by taking a balance between the initial parallel flow and perpendicular flows which include both E × B flow and diamagnetic flow in the initial condition, the mechanical toroidal angular momentum is approximately conserved despite the toroidal symmetry breaking due to the finite radial wavenumber zonal modes. Effect of electromagnetic potentials is also investigated. When the electromagnetic potentials are applied initially, fast oscillations which are faster than the geodesic acoustic modes are introduced in the decay phase of the zonal modes. Although the residual level in the long time limit is not modified, this can make the time required to reach the stationary zonal flows longer and may weaken the effectiveness of the turbulent transport suppression by the zonal flows.