Numerical studies of current generation by radio-frequency traveling waves

By injecting radio-frequency traveling waves into a tokamak, continuous toroidal electron currents may be generated. This process is studied by numerically solving the two-dimensional Fokker–Planck equation with an added quasi-linear term. The results are compared with the one-dimensional analytic treatment of Fisch, which predicted a reduced plasma resistivity when high-phase-velocity waves are employed. It is shown that two-dimensional velocity space effects, while retaining the predicted scaling, further reduce the ratio of power dissipated to current generated by about 40%. These effects enhance the attractiveness of steady-state tokamak reactors utilizing this method of current generation.