Charles Karney: Publication 52/85, Braams(1987a)

B. J. Braams and C. F. F. Karney.
Numerical Fokker-Planck studies.
In F. Engelmann and J. L. Alvarez Rivas, editors, Controlled Fusion and Plasma Physics, volume 11D, part III of Europhysics Conference Abstracts, pages 994–997, European Physical Society, 1987.
Fourteenth European Conf., Madrid, June 22–26, 1987.
BibTeX Entry

We are developing a code to solve the time-dependent Fokker-Planck equation for a high temperature magnetized plasma, including the full collision operator, quasi-linear wave-plasma interaction, and an electric field term. For the solution of the equations the multigrid method is employed, making the code cheap in terms of cpu-time and memory. In its initial version our code is suitable to study some basic problems in which all species except one are assumed Maxwellian. Examples are the runaway problem, and rf heating and current drive by electron cyclotron or lower hybrid waves. Another class of fundamental studies that we intend to undertake involves the determination of linear response functions for various moments of the distribution function via the adjoint method. Moments of interest include the current and the parallel and perpendicular energy. In particular we are interested in studying the response function for synchrotron radiation for the purpose of experimental determination of the electron distribution function and the rf energy deposition profile.