New Regime of Low Ion Collisionality in the Neoclassical Equilibrium of Tokamak Plasmas

The neoclassical description of an axisymmetric toroidal plasma equilibrium is formulated for an unconventionally low ordering of the collisionality that suits realistic thermonuclear fusion conditions. This requires a drift-kinetic analysis to the second order of the ion Larmor radius, which yields a new contribution to the leading solution for the non-Maxwellian part of the ion distribution function if the equilibrium geometry is not up-down symmetric. An explicit geometrical factor weighs this second Larmor-radius order, low-collisionality effect that modifies the neoclassical ion parallel flow and the ion contribution to the bootstrap current. For this low-collisionality neoclassical equilibrium solution, the pressure anisotropy part of the Chew-Goldberger-Low stress tensor is comparable to the gyroviscosity and their contributions to the flux-surface-averaged parallel momentum equation balance exactly.