This article is cited in 97 papers

REVIEWS OF TOPICAL PROBLEMS

Particle kinetics in highly turbulent plasmas (renormalization and self-consistent field methods)

A. M. Bykov^a, I. N. Toptygin<sup>b

a</sup> Ioffe Institute, St. Petersburg
^b Saint-Petersburg State Technical University

Abstract: This review presents methods available for calculating transport coefficients for impurity particles in plasmas with strong long-wave MHD-type velocity and magnetic-field fluctuations, and random ensembles of strong shock fronts. The renormalization of the coefficients of the mean-field equation of turbulent dynamo theory is also considered. Particular attention is devoted to the renormalization method developed by the authors in which the renormalized transport coefficients are calculated from a nonlinear transcendental equation (or a set of such equations) and are expressed in the form of explicit functions of pair correlation tensors describing turbulence. Numerical calculations are reproduced for different turbulence spectra. Spatial transport in a magnetic field and particle acceleration by strong turbulence are investigated. The theory can be used in a wide range of practical problems in plasma physics, atmospheric physics, ocean physics, astrophysics, cosmic-ray physics, and so on.

PACS: 52.35.Ra, 52.25.Fi, 52.25.Gj, 52.25.Vy, 52.30.Cv, 52.65.Vv

Received: June 25, 1993
Revised: September 30, 1993

DOI: 10.3367/UFNr.0163.199311b.0019

 English version: Physics–Uspekhi, 1993, 36:11, 1020–1052