Study of the origin of the electric field in toroidal magnetized plasmas

The world needs desperately a reliable source of energy that does not emit CO2 and that does not depend on weather conditions or leaves long term radioactive waste. The solution to this need could be nuclear fusion, which is the nuclear reaction that produces the energy in the core of the sun. To reproduce this reaction on Earth and be able to produce electricity with it, we need to design nuclear reactors capable of harvesting this power. One of the most promising reactor designs is tokamaks. These reactors depend on magnetic fields to confine the hydrogen plasma that will get fused. Inside of these reactors, the plasma produces electric fields that are not deeply understood but that are strongly relevant for the confinement of the plasma inside of them. In this thesis, I present the theory to be able to describe, predict and understand the origin of these electric fields. These electric fields arise in the plasma as a way of balancing the currents and the pressure gradients that produce a difference in the position between the ions and the electrons that compose the plasma.
Using the theory derived, we analyzed the differences in the electric fields in a simulation changing the direction of the toroidal magnetic field of a tokamak. In these simulations, we reproduce some experimental observations not completely understood and with our theory, we give an explanation for the origin of these differences.