Influence of collisions on parametric instabilities induced by lower hybrid waves in tokamak plasmas

Parametric instabilities induced at the plasma edge by lower hybrid wave power externally coupled to tokamak plasmas have, via broadening of the antenna spectrum, strong influence on the power deposition and current drive in the core. For modeling the parametric instabilities at the tokamak plasma edge in lower hybrid current drive experiments, the effect of the collisions has been neglected so far. In the present work, a specific collisional parametric dispersion relation, useful to analyze these nonlinear phenomena near the lower hybrid antenna mouth, is derived for the first time, based on a kinetic model. Numerical solutions show that in such cold plasma regions the collisions prevent the onset of the parametric instabilities. This result is important for present lower hybrid current drive experiments, as well as in fusion reactor scenarios.