Second-order radio frequency kinetic theory revisited: Resolving inconsistency with conventional fluid theory

The second-order velocity distribution function was calculated from the second-order rf kinetic theory [Jaeger et al., Phys. Plasmas 7, 641 (2000)]. However, the nonresonant ponderomotive force in the radial direction derived from the theory is inconsistent with that from the fluid theory. The inconsistency arises from that the multiple-timescale-separation assumption fails when the second-order Vlasov equation is directly integrated along unperturbed particle orbits. A slowly ramped wave field including an adiabatic turn-on process is applied in the modified kinetic theory in this paper. Since this modification leads only to additional reactive/nonresonant response relevant with the secular resonant response from the previous kinetic theory, the correct nonresonant ponderomotive force can be obtained while all the resonant moments remain unchanged.