Electron cyclotron wave damping for oblique propagation in hot plasmas

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Abstract
The absorption is considered of electron cyclotron waves (ECW) propagating away from normal to the magnetic field in hot tokamak plasmas. The relativistic dispersion relation including Larmor radius effects is presented in a relatively simple and instructive form. It is shown that for the X-mode at down-shifted frequency and Te 20 keV, the resonant frequency lies in the subharmonic range of frequencies and the parallel velocity of the absorbing electrons is close to the speed of light. Also pointed out is the relevance of the parallel change in the kinetic energy and the momentum induced by the ECW of relativistic resonant electrons to the quasi-linear evolution of the electron distribution.