Nonmodal kinetic theory of the stability of the compressed–sheared plasma flows generated by the inhomogeneous microscale turbulence in the tokamak edge plasma

Abstract

The nonmodal kinetic theory of the stability of the two-dimensional compressed–sheared mesoscale plasma flows, generated by the radially inhomogeneous electrostatic ion cyclotron parametric microturbulence in the pedestal plasma with a sheared poloidal flow, is developed. It bases on the investigation of the temporal evolution of the compressed–sheared modes. The integral equation, which governs the temporal evolution of the electrostatic potential of the plasma species responses on the mesoscale compressed–sheared convective flows, is derived. The exceptional advantage of the derived integral equation, which uses the wavevector-time variables, is the ability to perform the analysis of the nonmodal evolution of electrostatic potential during any finite time domain and to investigate the transient processes which occurs at any definite time scales. The approximate nonmodal solution of this equation for the kinetic drift instability in the compressed flow is given.