Modelling of impurity heating during reconnections in a Reverse Field Pinch device as due to parallel electric field acceleration and chaos-induced thermalization

Abstract

The ion temperature during magnetic reconnections measured along the direction of the magnetic field at the MST Reverse Field Pinch has not yet received a satisfactory theoretical explanation. In this work we argue that it is consistent with a picture of ion energization by the parallel electric fields generated by the plasma during reconnection, and thermalization due to the chaotic ion dynamics. Three possible sources of randomness are pointed out: particle motion along static stochastic magnetic field lines, breakup of the adiabatic ion dynamics caused by the strong gradient nonlinearity of the magnetic field, parallel acceleration along stochastic time-dependent electric fields. The three mechanisms are likely operative simultaneously; regardless the specific mechanism active, the correct scaling laws with ion parameters are recovered. Furthermore, we argue that quantitative agreement can be obtained by feeding the model with realistic values for the plasma conditions.