UC San Diego

An electromagnetic gyrokinetic formulation is utilized to calculate the turbulent radial flux of parallel momentum for a strongly magnetized plasma in the large aspect ratio limit. For low- Β plasmas, excluding regions of steep density gradients, the level of momentum transport induced by microturbulence is found to be well described within the electrostatic approximation. However, near regions of steep equilibrium profile gradients, strong electromagnetic contributions to the momentum flux are predicted. In particular, for sufficiently steep density gradient, the magnitude of transport induced by the off-diagonal residual stress component of the momentum flux induced by drift wave turbulence can be quenched. This quenching mechanism, which results from shielding of the parallel electric field by the inductive term, is distinct from E×B shear decorrelation, since it allows for the level of off-diagonal turbulent transport to be strongly reduced without extinguishing the underlying microturbulence. In contrast, the level of transport induced by a given Alfv́nic branch of the drift-Alfv́n dispersion relationship typically increases as the density gradient steepens, allowing an alternate channel for momentum transport. A calculation of the momentum transport induced by Alfv́nic turbulence in a homogeneous medium suggests that an imbalance in Elsasser populations is required in order to introduce a finite level of off-diagonal momentum transport for the case of the simplified geometry considered. © 2009 American Institute of Physics.