Hyperdiffusion of dust particles in a turbulent tokamak plasma

Abstract

The effect of plasma turbulence on the trajectories of dust particles is investigated for the first time. The dynamics of dust particles is computed using the ad hoc developed Dust Injection Simulator code, using a 3D turbulent plasma background computed with the TOKAM3X code. As a result, the evolution of the particle trajectories is governed by the ion drag force, and the shape of the trajectory is set by the Stokes number com.elsevier.xml.ani.Math@33d0a890, with ad the dust radius and n0 the density at the separatrix. The plasma turbulence is observed to scatter the dust particles, exhibiting a hyperdiffusive regime in all cases. The amplitude of the turbulent spread of the trajectories com.elsevier.xml.ani.Math@34c04534 is shown to depend on the ratio Ku/St, with com.elsevier.xml.ani.Math@1b7e4f75 the Kubo number and urms the fluctuation level of the plasma flow. These results are compared with a simple analytical model, predicting com.elsevier.xml.ani.Math@4eb904e7, or com.elsevier.xml.ani.Math@789ba188. As the dust is heated by the plasma fluxes, thermionic emission sets the dust charge, originally negative, to slightly positive values. This results in a substantial reduction of the ion drag force through the suppression of its Coulomb scattering component. The dust grain inertia is then no longer negligible and drives the transition from a hyperdiffusive regime toward a ballistic one.