Nonlinear radial envelope evolution equations and energetic particle transport in tokamak plasmas

Abstract

This work provides a general description of the self-consistent energetic particle phase space transport in burning plasmas, based on nonlinear gyrokinetic theory. The self consistency is ensured by the evolution equations of the Alfvénic fluctuations by means of nonlinear radial envelope evolution equations, while energetic particle fluxes in the phase space are explicitly constructed from long-lived phase space zonal structures, which are undamped by collisionless processes. As a result, this work provides a viable route to computing fluctuation induced energetic particle transport on long time scales in realistic tokamak plasmas.