Momentum transfer during Landau damping and radio frequency current drive

Uehara, Kazuya

The current drive generated by radio frequency waves is regarded as the momentum transfer from waves to resonant electrons through the Landau damping process. The conventional current drive theory is based on the quasi-linear diffusion using the Fokker-Planck equation to derive the deviation of the electron distribution function to cause the current and is not considered the momentum transfer. The momentum transfer is evaluated using a well-defined model of Landau damping and we derived the current drive theory considering the competition between the electron acceleration by the effective force acting on resonate electrons and the collision of particles. The deformed distribution function to yield the RF current is also formulated with a Boltzmann equation including a simple collision term.