Neoclassical transport theory of a multispecies plasma in the low collision frequency regime

Abstract

A comprehensive neoclassical transport theory for a multispecies plasma in the low collision frequency banana regime is developed. A recently developed approximate collision operator is used to analytically calculate the transport coefficients in a nonisothermal, finite beta plasma for arbitrary mass ratios and all values of the aspect ratio. The physical effects of collisions in the large and small aspect ratio limits are discussed in detail. The bootstrap current is expressed in terms of the parallel friction forces, and an explicit calculation of the current is performed for the case of two ion species in which one is a heavy impurity ion.