Kinetic Effects on Drift Tearing Modes in Slab Geometry

Kinetic effects on drift tearing modes in slab geometry are studied using the extended MHD formulation in the NIMROD code [C. R. Sovinec, et al., J. Comput. Phys. 195, 355-386 (2004)]. In this work, kinetic modifications (beyond that of ion gyroviscosity) enter the fluid equations through closures for the electron parallel heat flux and stress tensor which takes a CGL form. Self-consistent calculation of the electron closures is accomplished by solving the Chapman-Enskog-like form of the drift kinetic equation [J. J. Ramos, Phys Plasmas 17, 082502 (2010)]. We extend results from a previous parametric study that used a strictly fluid model [J. R. King and S. E. Kruger, Phys Plasmas, 21, 102113 (2014); J. R. King and S. E. Kruger, arXiv:1407.3864 [physics.plasm-ph] (2014)].