Nonlinear theory of drift-cyclotron kinetics and the possible breakdown of gyro-kinetics

A nonlinear theory of drift-cyclotron kinetics (termed cyclo-kinetics here) is formulated to test the breakdown of the gyro-kinetic approximations. Six dimensional cyclo-kinetics can be regarded as an extension of five dimensional gyro-kinetics to include high-frequency cyclotron waves, which can interrupt the low-frequency gyro-averaging in the (sixth velocity grid) gyro-phase angle. Nonlinear cyclo-kinetics has no limit on the amplitude of the perturbations. Formally, there is no gyro-averaging when all cyclotron (gyro-phase angle) harmonics of the perturbed distribution function (delta-f) are retained. Retaining only the (low frequency) zeroth cyclotron harmonic in cyclo-kinetics recovers both linear and nonlinear gyro-kinetics. Simple recipes are given for converting continuum nonlinear delta-f gyro-kinetic transport simulation codes to cyclo-kinetics codes by retaining (at least some) higher cyclotron harmonics. (C) 2013 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4773039]