Parallel acceleration due to the radial electric field in a magnetized plasma with low-frequency turbulence

TL;DR

This paper introduces a new physical mechanism for parallel acceleration in turbulent magnetized plasmas, showing how radial electric fields and magnetic moment conservation induce finite parallel flows.

Contribution

It discovers a novel correlation-driven acceleration mechanism in turbulent plasmas using a Fokker-Planck stochastic transport approach.

Findings

Identification of a correlation between particle walk and parallel velocity change

Demonstration of finite parallel fluid flow due to the mechanism

Use of Fokker-Planck equation to model the process

Abstract

A new physical mechanism of the parallel acceleration of a turbulent magnetized plasma is discovered by using a Fokker-Planck phase space stochastic transport equation. It is found that the random walk of a charged particle is correlated with the random change of the parallel velocity due to the radial electric field and the magnetic moment conservation. This correlation leads to a parallel acceleration of the plasma with a finite parallel fluid flow.