Collisional Drift Waves in Stellarator Plasmas
Author: J.L.V. Lewandowski
Date of PPPL Report: October 2003
Published in: the Canadian Journal of Physics 81: 1309-1330 (2003).
A computational study of resistive drift waves in the edge plasma of a stellarator with an helical magnetic axis is presented. Three coupled field equations, describing the collisional drift wave dynamics in the linear approximation, are solved as an initial-value problem along the magnetic field line. The magnetohydrodynamic equilibrium is obtained from a three-dimensional local equilibrium model. The use of a local magnetohydrodynamic equilibrium model allows for a computationally efficient systematic study of the impact of the magnetic field structure on drift wave stability.