Theoretical and numerical properties of a gyrokinetic plasma: issues related to transport time scale simulation

Particle simulation has played an important role for the recent investigations on turbulence transport in magnetically confined plasmas. In this paper, theoretical and numerical properties of a gyrokinetic plasma as well as its relationship with magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) are discussed with the ultimate aim of simulating microturbulence on transport time scale using massively parallel computers. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]