Guiding Center Equations of High Accuracy
Authors: R.B. White, G. Spizzo and M. Gobbin
Abstract:
Guiding center simulations are an important means of predicting the effect of resistive and
ideal magnetohydrodynamic instabilities on particle distributions in toroidal magnetically confined
thermonuclear fusion research devices. Because saturated instabilities typically have amplitudes of
δB/B of a few times 10-4 numerical accuracy is of concern in discovering the effect of mode particle
resonances. We develop a means of following guiding center orbits which is greatly superior to the
methods currently in use. In the presence of ripple or time dependent magnetic perturbations both
energy and canonical momentum are conserved to better than one part in 1014, and the relation
between changes in canonical momentum and energy is also conserved to very high order.
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Submitted to: Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion (March 2013
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Download PPPL-4862 (pdf 266 KB 11 pp)
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