Excitation of Kinetic Alfven Waves by Resonant Mode-Conversion and Longitudinal Heating of Magnetized Plasmas.

Simulation of the kinetic Alfven wave is performed using a 2-1/2 dimensional macroscale particle [magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) scale kinetic] simulation code. An oscillating antenna current is applied in one of the boundary regions to launch MHD perturbations into an inhomogeneous plasma in which a sheared magnetic field is present. It is shown that the applied perturbation is mode-converted into the kinetic Alfven wave at the Alfven resonance layers, resulting in resonant heating of both the ions and electrons. When the plasma beta is relatively low, only the electrons are heated along the ambient magnetic field. The electron heating rate is found to be scaled as dT sub (e||) /dt proportional to beta sup (1/2) sub e , where beta sub e is the electron beta and is the wave magnetic field intensity.