Heating of a Plasma by Acoustic Waves

Abstract

Generation of an acoustic wave and transformation of its energy into thermal energy are considered. We generate an acoustic wave, imposing an oscillating magnetic field to a cylindrical plasma in a static magnetic field. When the suitable frequency of oscillating field is chosen, an acoustic wave is excited at an intermediate state between adiabatic and isothermal states. In this situation acoustic energies are transformed into thermal energies through the irreversible flow of heat due to stress relaxation.
In this method, the efficiency of heating is very high. The calculation shows that this method should be suitable to heat a plasma of moderate temperature (10⁵∼10⁶ °K) and of high density (10¹⁴∼10¹⁶ particles/cm³).