| Summary: | The Hamiltonian character of the ray tracing equations describing the propagation of the Lower Hybrid Wave (LHW) in a magnetic confined plasma device (tokamak) is investigated in order to study the evolution of the parallel wave number along the propagation path. The chaotic diffusion of the “time-averaged” parallel wave number at higher values (with respect to that launched by the antenna at the plasma edge) has been evaluated, in order to find an explanation of the filling of the spectral gap (Fisch, 1987) by “Hamiltonian chaos” in the Lower Hybrid Current Drive (LHCD) experiments (Fisch, 1978). The present work shows that the increase of the parallel wave number \(n_{\parallel}\) due to toroidal effects, in the case of the typical plasma parameters of the Frascati Tokamak Upgrade (FTU) experiment, is insufficient to explain the filling of the spectral gap, and the consequent current drive and another mechanism must come into play to justify the wave absorption by Landau damping. Analytical calculations have been supplemented by a numerical algorithm based on the symplectic integration of the ray equations implemented in a ray tracing code, in order to preserve exactly the symplectic character of a Hamiltonian flow.
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