Effect of radial wavevector on collisional drift waves in a toroidal heliac

Abstract

A 3-field model for collisional drift waves, in the ballooning representation, for a low-pressure stellarator plasma is presented. In particular, the effect of a finite radial mode number (≡ θk) is studied, and the linear growth rates for the fluctuating plasma density, electrostatic potential and electron temperature are computed numerically by solving the 3-field model as an initial-value problem. Numerical results for a 3-field period stellarator with low global magnetic shear are then presented. It is found that, in a system with small global magnetic shear, the case θk = 0 yields the fastest linear growth rate.