Sensitivity of alpha-particle-driven Alfvén eigenmodes to q-profile variation in ITER scenarios

Sensitivity of alpha-particle-driven Alfvén eigenmodes to q-profile variation in ITER scenarios

A perturbative hybrid ideal-MHD/drift-kinetic approach to assess the stability of alpha-particle-driven Alfv�n eigenmodes in burning plasmas is used to show that certain foreseen ITER scenarios, namely the MA baseline scenario with very low and broad core magnetic shear, are sensitive to small cha...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Rodrigues, P., Figueiredo, A.C.A., Borba, D., Coelho, R., Fazendeiro, L., Ferreira, J., Nabais, F., Pinches, S.D., Polevoi, A.R., Sharapov, S.E., Gomes Loureiro, Nuno F
Other Authors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Plasma Science and Fusion Center
Format: Article
Published: IOP Publishing 2018
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/117092
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9755-6563
Description
Summary:A perturbative hybrid ideal-MHD/drift-kinetic approach to assess the stability of alpha-particle-driven Alfv�n eigenmodes in burning plasmas is used to show that certain foreseen ITER scenarios, namely the MA baseline scenario with very low and broad core magnetic shear, are sensitive to small changes in the background magnetic equilibrium. Slight variations (of the order of ) of the safety-factor value on axis are seen to cause large changes in the growth rate, toroidal mode number, and radial location of the most unstable eigenmodes found. The observed sensitivity is shown to proceed from the very low magnetic shear values attained throughout the plasma core, raising issues about reliable predictions of alpha-particle transport in burning plasmas.

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