Improved Unlike-Particle Collision Operator for delta-f Drift-Kinetic Particle Simulations

Abstract

Plasmas in modern tokamak experiments contain a significant fraction of impurity ion species in addition to main deuterium background. A new unlike-particle collision operator for δf particle simulation has been developed to study the nonlocal effects of impurities due to finite ion orbits on neoclassical transport in toroidal plasmas. A new algorithm for simulation of cross-collisions between different ion species includes test-particle and conserving field-particle operators. An improved field-particle operator is designed to exactly enforce conservation of number, momentum and energy.