Anomalous transport in turbulent plasmas and continuous time random walks

Abstract

The possibility of a model of anomalous transport problems in a turbulent plasma by a purely stochastic process is investigated. The theory of continuous time random walks (CTRW's) is briefly reviewed. It is shown that a particular class, called the standard long tail CTRW's is of special interest for the description of subdiffusive transport. Its evolution is described by a non-Markovian diffusion equation that is constructed in such a way as to yield exact values for all the moments of the density profile. The concept of a CTRW model is compared to an exact solution of a simple test problem: transport of charged particles in a fluctuating magnetic field in the limit of infinite perpendicular correlation length. Although the well-known behavior of the mean square displacement proportional to t1/2 is easily recovered, the exact density profile cannot be modeled by a CTRW. However, the quasilinear approximation of the kinetic equation has the form of a non-Markovian diffusion equation and can thus be generated by a CTRW. © 1995 The American Physical Society.