Neoclassical poloidal plasma rotation in tokamaks during radio frequency heating

A neoclassical theory of poloidal rotation in tokamaks is developed for rf- heated plasmas. It is based on a moment expansion but, in contrast to the u sual neoclassical theory, which takes into account the strong deformation o f the local equilibrium distribution function due to rf heating. This distr ibution function is the solution, in the banana regime, of the drift kineti c equation, which includes both collisional diffusion and quasilinear rf di ffusion operators. The set of closed, self-consistent transport and rotatio n equations is obtained in a form similar to its usual neoclassical counter part. The parallel components of the generalized stress tensors are calcula ted. This allows us to solve the transport equations for the poloidal rotat ion that is obtained in explicit form. Modifications of the poloidal rotati on due to the rf heating are also discussed. (C) 2001 American Institute of Physics.