Investigation Of A Transient Energetic Charge Exchange Fux Enhancement ('spike-on-tail') Observed In Neutral-beam-heated H-mode Discharges In The National Spherical Torus Experiment
In the National Spherical Torus Experiment (NSTX), a large increase in the charge exchange neutral flux localized at the Neutral Beam (NB) injection full energy is measured by the E||B (superimposed parallel electric and magnetic fields) Neutral Particle Analyzer (NPA). Termed the High-Energy Feature (HEF), it appears on the NB-injected energetic ion spectrum only in discharges where tearing or kink-type modes (f < 50 kHz) are absent, Toroidal Alfvén Eigenmode (TAE) activity (f ~ 50 - 150 kHz) is weak and Global Alfvén Eigenmode (GAE) activity (f ~ 400 – 1000 kHz) is robust. Compressional Alfvén eigenmode (CAE) activity (f > 1000 kHz) is usually sporadic or absent during the HEF event. The HEF exhibits growth times of Δt ~ 20 - 80 ms, durations of ~ 100 – 600 ms and peak-to-base flux ratios up to H = Fmax /Fmin ~ 10. In infrequent cases, a slowing down distribution below the HEF energy can develop that continues to evolve over periods > 100 ms, a time scale long compared with the typical fast ion equilibration times. HEFs are Transient energetic charge exchange flux enhancement ('spike-on-tail') 2 observed only in H-mode (not L-mode) discharges with injected power Pb ≥ 4 MW and in the pitch range χ = vll /v ~ 0.7 – 0.9; i.e. only for passing particles. Increases of ~ 10 - 30 % in the measured neutron yield and total stored energy that are observed to coincide with the feature appear to be driven by concomitant broadening of measured Te(r), Ti(r) and ne(r) profiles and not the HEF itself. While the HEF has minimal impact on plasma performance, it nevertheless poses a challenging wave-particle interaction phenomenon to understand. Candidate mechanisms for HEF formation are developed based on quasilinear theory of wave-particle interaction. The only mechanism found to lead to the large NPA flux ratios, H = Fmax /Fmin , observed in NSTX is the quasilinear evolution of the energetic ion distribution, Fb(E,χ,r), in phase space and the concomitant loss of some particles, which occurs due to the cyclotron interaction of the particles with destabilized modes having sufficiently high frequencies, F ~ 700 - 1000 kHz, in the plasma frame that are tentatively identified as Global Alfvén Eigenmodes.
- Research Organization:
- Princeton Plasma Physics Lab. (PPPL), Princeton, NJ (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC)
- DOE Contract Number:
- DE-ACO2-09CH11466
- OSTI ID:
- 1062582
- Report Number(s):
- PPPL-4652
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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