Restoring momentum conservation to magnetized quasilinear diffusion

TL;DR

This paper identifies a flaw in the traditional quasilinear diffusion tensor used in plasma physics, and proposes an extended four-dimensional tensor that conserves four-momentum, improving the accuracy of wave-particle interaction modeling.

Contribution

The authors extend the Kennel-Engelmann diffusion tensor from two to four dimensions to ensure four-momentum conservation, aligning with Hamiltonian theory.

Findings

The extended tensor restores proper momentum conservation.

Bounce-averaged tensor matches action-angle Hamiltonian paths.

Implementation requires only a mild modification of existing codes.

Abstract

Wave interactions with magnetized particles underly many plasma heating and current drive technologies. Typically, these interactions are modeled by bounce-averaging the quasilinear Kennel-Engelmann diffusion tensor over the particle orbit. However, as an object derived in a two-dimensional space, the Kennel-Engelmann tensor does not fully respect the conservation of four-momentum required by the action conservation theorem, since it neglects the absorption of perpendicular momentum. This defect leads to incorrect predictions for the wave-induced cross-field particle transport. Here, we show how this defect can easily be fixed, by extending the tensor from two to four dimensions and matching the form required by four-momentum conservation. The resulting extended tensor, when bounce-averaged, recovers the form of the diffusion paths required by action-angle Hamiltonian theory. Importantly, the extended tensor should be easily implementable in Fokker-Planck codes through a mild modification of the existing Kennel-Engelmann tensor.