Full Self-Consistent Vlasov-Maxwell Solution

Aurélien Cordonnier (1, 2) , Xavier Leoncini (1, 2) , Guilhem Dif-Pradalier (3) , Xavier Garbet (3)

1 CPT - Centre de Physique Théorique - UMR 7332
2 CPT - E7 Systèmes dynamiques : théories et applications
3 IRFM - Institut de Recherche sur la Fusion par confinement Magnétique

Full self-consistent stationary Vlasov-Maxwell solutions of magnetically confined plasmas are built for systems with cylindrical symmetries. The stationary solutions are thermodynamic equilibrium solutions. These are obtained by computing the equilibrium distribution function resulting from maximizing the entropy and closing the equations with source terms that are then computed by using the obtained distribution. This leads to a self-consistent problem corresponding to solving a set of two coupled second order non-linear differential equations. Relevant plasma parameters are introduced and a bifurcation leading to an improvement of plasma confinement is shown. Conversely in the improved confinement setting, we exhibit the emergence of a separatrix in the integrable motion of a charged particles.

Domains: Physics [physics]; Physics [physics]; Plasma Physics [physics.plasm-ph]; Physics [physics]; Physics [physics]; Classical Physics [physics.class-ph]

Aurélien Cordonnier, Xavier Leoncini, Guilhem Dif-Pradalier, Xavier Garbet. Full Self-Consistent Vlasov-Maxwell Solution. Physical Review E , In press. ⟨hal-03753875v2⟩