Anomalous Diffusion and Ion Heating in the Presence of Electrostatic Hydrogen Cyclotron Instabilities

Abstract

One- and two-dimensional particle simulations have been carried out to study electrostatic ion cyclotron instabilities for a hydrogen plasma in a strong magnetic field. It is found that strong ion heating and anomalous cross-field diffusion comparable to Bohm diffusion take place associated with the instability. Implications of the instability to the recent observations in fusion devices and space plasmas are discussed.