Role of magnetic field tangency points in ICRF sheath interactions

ICRF waves can sometimes interact with plasma-facing surfaces in tokamak fusion experiments causing degradation of core heating efficiency, impurity injection and even component damage. While presently available low dimensionality rf sheath models are useful in understanding many features of these interactions, more quantitative modeling will require attention to realistic geometrical details of the boundary plasma and surfaces. In this paper, we explore the situation in which there exists a tangency point of the background magnetic field with a surface. We find that the rf interactions are strongly influenced by the generation and propagation of sheath-plasma waves (SPW) along the surface. It is found that these waves preferentially propagate towards, and accumulate at, a convex tangency point. An analytical theory of SPW propagation is developed to understand these features.