On neoclassical impurity transport in stellarator geometry

The impurity dynamics in stellarators has become an issue of moderate concern due to the inherent tendency of the impurities to accumulate in the core when the neoclassical ambipolar radial electric field points radially inwards (ion root regime). This accumulation can lead to collapse of the plasma due to radiative losses, and thus limit high performance plasma discharges in non-axisymmetric devices. A quantitative description of the neoclassical impurity transport is complicated by the breakdown of the assumption of small E × B drift and trapping due to the electrostatic potential variation on a flux surface Φ-tilde compared with those due to the magnetic field gradient. This work examines the impact of this potential variation on neoclassical impurity transport in the Large Helical Device heliotron. It shows that the neoclassical impurity transport can be strongly affected by Φ-tilde . The central numerical tool used is the δf particle in cell Monte Carlo code EUTERPE. The Φ-tilde used in the calculations is provided by the neoclassical code GSRAKE. The possibility of obtaining a more general Φ-tilde self-consistently with EUTERPE is also addressed and a preliminary calculation is presented. (paper)