Ion Landau damping and drift tearing modes
Abstract
Kinetic treatments of drift tearing modes that match an inner, resonant layer solution to an external magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) solution, characterised by \triangle\prime , can fail to match the ideal MHD boundary condition on the parallel electric field, E\Vert =0. In this paper we demonstrate how consideration of ion sound and ion Landau damping effects achieves this, placing the theory on a firm footing. These effects are found to modify the effective critical \triangle\prime for instability of drift tearing modes, in particular for weak electron temperature gradients. The implications for a realistic hot plasma resonant layer model - involving large ion Larmor radius and semi-collisional electron physics (Connor et al., Plasma Phys. Control. Fusion, vol. 54, 2012, 035003) - are determined.
- Publication:
-
Journal of Plasma Physics
- Pub Date:
- April 2019
- DOI:
- 10.1017/S0022377819000217
- Bibcode:
- 2019JPlPh..85b9004C
- Keywords:
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- fusion plasma;
- plasma instabilities