RF current drive with magnetic helicity injection

Abstract

External injection of magnetic helicity into a plasma may be possible through the introduction of appropriately polarized electromagnetic waves. A concept of steady-state current-drive is presented, based on the validity of conservation of helicity (appropriately defined for finite frequency processes). It is shown that such external injection of helicity can maintain a steady-state current by compensating the volt-seconds consumed through plasma resistivity. Such a mechanism, if experimentally successful, is particularly interesting at high densities because the efficiency of the process does not depend on plasma density, as opposed to other radio-frequency current-drive techniques.