Low-frequency heating and induced particle transport in an inhomogeneous plasma with Ohmic current

Particle and energy conservation relations appropriate to drift and MHD ordering are derived and simplified in the MHD case by exploiting an invariant of guiding-centre motion existing when E. B = 0. An MHD perturbation calculation is made of the local average densitjr and energy rates of change induced by a wave of general transverse-electric type in an inhomogeneous plasma. The resulting expressions, which incorporate the effect of equilibrium electric field on zeroth-order trajectories, are of striking simplicity. In the drift-ordered limit their divergence from other drift results is discussed; particle pump-out in the given heating fields is seen to be much smaller than found previously.