Electrostatic potential variations on stellarator magnetic surfaces in low collisionality regimes

TL;DR

This paper analytically derives the size, structure, and scaling of electrostatic potential variations on stellarator magnetic surfaces in low collisionality regimes, with implications for neoclassical transport modeling.

Contribution

It provides analytical expressions and numerical verification for electrostatic potential variations in stellarators near omnigeneity, focusing on low collisionality regimes.

Findings

Largest potential variation scales linearly with inverse aspect ratio.

Potential variations depend on deviation from omnigeneity.

Analytical results are verified with numerical simulations.

Abstract

The component of the neoclassical electrostatic potential that is non-constant on the magnetic surface, that we denote by $\tilde\varphi$, can affect radial transport of highly charged impurities, and this has motivated its inclusion in some modern neoclassical codes. The number of neoclassical simulations in which $\tilde\varphi$ is calculated is still scarce, partly because they are usually demanding in terms of computational resources, especially at low collisionality. In this paper the size, the scaling with collisionality and with aspect ratio, and the structure of $\tilde\varphi$ on the magnetic surface are analytically derived in the $1/\nu$, $\sqrt{\nu}$ and superbanana-plateau regimes of stellarators close to omnigeneity; i. e. stellarators that have been optimized for neoclassical transport. It is found that the largest $\tilde\varphi$ that the neoclassical equations admit scales linearly with the inverse aspect ratio and with the size of the deviation from omnigeneity. Using a model for a perturbed omnigeneous configuration, the analytical results are verified and illustrated with calculations by the code KNOSOS. The techniques, results and numerical tools employed in this paper can be applied to neoclassical transport problems in tokamaks with broken axisymmetry.