Perpendicular currents and electric fields in fully and partially ionized magnetized plasma

Abstract

Perpendicular currents and self-consistent electric fields in fully and partially ionized plasma in strong magnetic field are analyzed. In fully ionized plasma, the analyses are concentrated on closing of viscosity driven currents. For partially ionized plasma, it is demonstrated that the perpendicular currents could be expressed through the total pressure gradient (including the pressure gradient of neutral particles) and viscosity of neutrals. The self-consistent electric fields and corresponding E→×B→ could be quite large, which is important for various applications, in particular, for the divertor plasma of a tokamak in the detached regime.