Nonlinear Kinetic Theory of a Single Helicity Tearing Instability

摘要

The evolution of a single helicity tearing mode is analyzed by kinetic theory, including modification of the electron orbits by the islands themselves. Using flux coordinates approrpriate to island geometry, analytic solutions for the time-dependent island width are obtained. These describe evolution from linear growth to nonlinear saturation in the collisionless limit, and transition from such saturation to slow Rutherford-type growth for increasing finite collisionality. Previous work is thus unfied and generalized. (ERA citation 08:056710)