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Physics of Fluids B: Plasma Physics -- November 1993 -- Volume 5, Issue 11 pp. 4040-4050

Stability of the toroidicity-induced Alfvén eigenmode in axisymmetric toroidal equilibria

G. Y. Fu, C. Z. Cheng, and K. L. Wong

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

(Received 5 May 1993; accepted 2 August 1993)

The stability of toroidicity-induced Alfvén eigenmodes (TAE) is investigated in general tokamak equilibria with finite aspect ratio and finite plasma beta. The finite orbit width of the hot particles and the collisional damping of the trapped electrons are included. For the trapped hot particles, the finite orbit width is found to be stabilizing. For the circulating hot particles, the finite orbit width effect is stabilizing for larger values of v_h/v_A (1) and destabilizing for smaller values of v_h/v_A (<1), where v_h is the hot particle speed and v_A is the Alfvén speed. The collisional damping of the trapped electrons is found to have a much weaker dependence on the collision frequency than the previous analytic results. The contribution of the curvature term to the trapped electron collisional damping is negligible compared to that of the parallel electric field term for typical parameters. The calculated critical hot particle beta values for the TAE instability are consistent with the experimental measurements. Physics of Fluids B: Plasma Physics is copyrighted by The American Institute of Physics.

DOI: 10.1063/1.860572
PACS: 52.35.Bj, 52.55.Fa        Additional Information

Citing Articles

1. Fast particle finite orbit width and Larmor radius effects on low-n toroidicity induced Alfvén eigenmode excitation
   N. N Gorelenkov et al., Phys. Plasmas 6, 2802 (1999)
2. Linear gyrokinetic theory for kinetic magnetohydrodynamic eigenmodes in tokamak plasmas
   H. Qin et al., Phys. Plasmas 6, 2544 (1999)
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. Prediction of Alfvén eigenmode dampings in the Joint European Torus
   A. Jaun et al., Phys. Plasmas 5, 2952 (1998)