On Properties of Compressional Alfvén Eigenmode Instability Driven by Superalfvénic Ions
Authors: N.N. Gorelenkov and C.Z. Cheng
Date of PPPL Report: February 2002
Published in: Nuclear Fusion 42 (October 2002) 1216-1220.
Properties of the instability of Compressional Alfvén Eigenmodes (CAE) in tokamak plasmas are studied in the cold plasma approximation with an emphasis on the instability driven by the energetic minority Ion Cyclotron Resonance Heating (ICRH) ions. We apply earlier developed theory [N.N. Gorelenkov and C.Z. Cheng, Nuclear Fusion 35 (1995) 1743] to compare two cases: Ion Cyclotron Emission (ICE) driven by charged fusion products and ICRH Minority driven ICE (MICE) [J. Cottrell, Phys. Rev. Lett. (2000)] recently observed on JET [Joint European Torus]. Particularly in MICE spectrum, only instabilities with even harmonics of deuterium-cyclotron frequency at the low-field-side plasma edge were reported. Odd deuterium-cyclotron frequency harmonics of ICE spectrum between the cyclotron harmonics of protons can be driven only via the Doppler-shifted cyclotron wave-particle resonance of CAEs with fusion products, but are shown to be damped due to the electron Landau damping in experiments on MICE. Excitation of odd harmonics of MICE with high-field-side heating is predicted. Dependencies of the instability on the electron temperature is studied and is shown to be strong. Low electron temperature is required to excite odd harmonics in MICE.