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Physics of Fluids B: Plasma Physics -- May 1990 -- Volume 2, Issue 5 pp. 985-993

Theory of a high-n toroidicity-induced shear Alfvén eigenmode in tokamaks

G. Y. Fu

Center for Fusion Engineering and Institute for Fusion Studies, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712

C. Z. Cheng

Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08543

(Received 12 July 1989; accepted 19 January 1990)

A high-n WKB-ballooning mode equation is employed to study toroidicity-induced shear Alfvén eigenmodes (TAE) in s- space, where s=(r/q)(dq/dr) is the magnetic shear and =–(2Rq²/B²)(dp/dr) is the normalized pressure gradient for tokamak plasmas. In the ballooning mode first stability region, TAE modes are found to exist only for less than some critical value _c. It is found that these TAE modes reappear in the ballooning mode second stability region for bands of values. The global envelope structures of these TAE modes are studied by the Wentzel–Kramers–Brillouin (WKB) method and are found to be bounded radially if the local mode frequency has a maximum in radius. Physics of Fluids B: Plasma Physics is copyrighted by The American Institute of Physics.

DOI: 10.1063/1.859245
PACS: 52.35.Bj, 52.55.Fa        Additional Information

Citing Articles

1. Shear Alfvén mode resonances in nonaxisymmetric toroidal low-pressure plasmas. II. Singular modes in the shear Alfvén continuum
   A. Salat et al., Phys. Plasmas 8, 1207 (2001)
2. Shear Alfvén mode resonances in nonaxisymmetric toroidal low-pressure plasmas. I. Mode equations in arbitrary geometry
   A. Salat et al., Phys. Plasmas 8, 1200 (2001)
3. Alpha particle-driven toroidal Alfvén eigenmodes in Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor deuterium–tritium plasmas: Theory and experiments
   G. Y. Fu et al., Phys. Plasmas 5, 4284 (1998)
4. Kinetic toroidal Alfvén eigenmodes in finite- tokamak plasmas
   L. -J. Zheng et al., Phys. Plasmas 5, 1056 (1998)
5. Plasma compressibility induced toroidal Alfvén eigenmode
   L.-J. Zheng et al., Phys. Plasmas 5, 444 (1998)