Physical nature of the electric current produced by the asymmetry of particle motion in toroidal magnetic confinement systems

Abstract

A new type of longitudinal electric current is revealed by analyzing the drift trajectories of charged particles in a tokamak—the current that may be referred to as the asymmetry current because it is associated with the asymmetry of the boundary between trapped and transit particles in phase space. The generation of this current is explained by the fact that the motions of the particles that cross the magnetic surface at a given point in opposite directions are qualitatively different. The asymmetry current results from the toroidal variations of the magnetic field and is maintained by the radial momentum flux of transit particles. The contribution of the particles of different species to the asymmetry current density is proportional to their pressure, is independent of the gradients of the plasma parameters, is maximum at the magnetic axis, and decreases toward the plasma periphery. In contrast to standard neoclassical theory, the asymmetry current can be found only from exact particle trajectories. The asymmetry current is calculated for tokamaks with differently shaped magnetic surfaces and for a model stellarator. By exploiting the newly revealed asymmetry current, together with the bootstrap current, it may be possible to substantially simplify the problem of creating a tokamak reactor.