Sheath constraints on turbulent magnetised plasmas

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Geraldini, Alessandro, Brunner, Stephan, Parra, Felix I.
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2024
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author Geraldini, Alessandro
Brunner, Stephan
Parra, Felix I.
author_facet Geraldini, Alessandro
Brunner, Stephan
Parra, Felix I.
contents A solid target in contact with a plasma charges (negatively) to reflect the more mobile species (electrons) and thus keep the bulk plasma quasineutral. To shield the bulk plasma from the charged target, there is an oppositely (positively) charged sheath with a sharp electrostatic potential variation on the Debye length scale $λ_{\rm D}$. In magnetised plasmas where the magnetic field is inclined at an oblique angle $α$ with the target, some of the sheath potential variation occurs also on the ion sound gyroradius length scale $ρ_{\rm S} \cos α$, caused by finite ion gyro-orbit distortion and losses. We consider a collisionless and steady-state magnetised plasma sheath whose thickness $l_{\rm ms} \sim \max (λ_{\rm D}, ρ_{\rm S} \cos α)$ is smaller than the characteristic length scale $L$ of spatial fluctuations in the bulk plasma, such that the limit $l_{\rm ms} / L \rightarrow 0$ is appropriate. Spatial structures are assumed to be magnetic field-aligned. In the case of small magnetic field angle $ α\sim δ\equiv ρ_{\rm S} / L \ll 1$, electric fields tangential to the target transport ions towards the target via ExB drifts at a rate comparable to the one from parallel streaming. A generalised form of the kinetic Bohm-Chodura criterion at the sheath entrance is derived by requiring that the sheath electric field have a monotonic spatial decay far from the target. The criterion depends on tangential gradients of potential and ion distribution function, with additional nontrivial conditions.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2401_07385
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Sheath constraints on turbulent magnetised plasmas
Geraldini, Alessandro
Brunner, Stephan
Parra, Felix I.
Plasma Physics
A solid target in contact with a plasma charges (negatively) to reflect the more mobile species (electrons) and thus keep the bulk plasma quasineutral. To shield the bulk plasma from the charged target, there is an oppositely (positively) charged sheath with a sharp electrostatic potential variation on the Debye length scale $λ_{\rm D}$. In magnetised plasmas where the magnetic field is inclined at an oblique angle $α$ with the target, some of the sheath potential variation occurs also on the ion sound gyroradius length scale $ρ_{\rm S} \cos α$, caused by finite ion gyro-orbit distortion and losses. We consider a collisionless and steady-state magnetised plasma sheath whose thickness $l_{\rm ms} \sim \max (λ_{\rm D}, ρ_{\rm S} \cos α)$ is smaller than the characteristic length scale $L$ of spatial fluctuations in the bulk plasma, such that the limit $l_{\rm ms} / L \rightarrow 0$ is appropriate. Spatial structures are assumed to be magnetic field-aligned. In the case of small magnetic field angle $ α\sim δ\equiv ρ_{\rm S} / L \ll 1$, electric fields tangential to the target transport ions towards the target via ExB drifts at a rate comparable to the one from parallel streaming. A generalised form of the kinetic Bohm-Chodura criterion at the sheath entrance is derived by requiring that the sheath electric field have a monotonic spatial decay far from the target. The criterion depends on tangential gradients of potential and ion distribution function, with additional nontrivial conditions.
title Sheath constraints on turbulent magnetised plasmas
topic Plasma Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2401.07385