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Strong Magnetic Field Effects on the Collision Term and Electron-Ion Temperature Relaxation

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Abstract

Under conditions when the particles’ thermal gyro-radii are smaller than the Debye length \(\lambda _D\), the magnetic field influence on the collision dynamics and associated transport processes becomes significant and has to be considered. In this paper, derivation of the kinetic equation based on the Fokker–Planck approach is reviewed for uniform magnetized plasmas with \(\rho _{the}<\lambda _D<\rho _{thi}\), where \(\rho _{the}\) and \(\rho _{thi}\) are the electron and ion thermal gyro-radii, respectively. Generally speaking, current tokamak plasmas lie in the above studied parameter range. Serving as an example for the application of the derived magnetized kinetic equation and demonstrating the modifications to the transport coefficients from a strong magnetic field, the electron-ion temperature relaxation is reviewed. The relaxation time exhibits a noticeable magnetic field dependence.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National MCF Energy R&D Program under Grant No. 2018YFE0311300, the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant Nos. 11875067, 11835016, 11705275, 11675257, and 11675256, the Strategic Priority Research Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences under Grant No. XDB16010300, the Key Research Program of Frontier Science of Chinese Academy of Sciences under Grant No. QYZDJ-SSW-SYS016, and the External Cooperation Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences under Grant No. 112111KYSB20160039.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics and Laboratory of Soft Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190, China

    Chao Dong & Ding Li

  2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Chao Dong & Ding Li

  3. Songshan Lake Materials Laboratory, Dongguan, Guangdong, 523808, China

    Ding Li

  4. CAS Center for Excellence in Ultra-intense Laser Science, Shanghai, 201800, China

    Ding Li

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  1. Chao Dong
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Dong, C., Li, D. Strong Magnetic Field Effects on the Collision Term and Electron-Ion Temperature Relaxation. J Fusion Energ 39, 390–400 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10894-020-00280-3

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