James Cook

Linear and nonlinear physics of the magnetoacoustic cyclotron instability of fusion-born ions in relation to ion cyclotron emission

The magnetoacoustic cyclotron instability (MCI) probably underlies observations of ion cyclotron emission (ICE) from energetic ion populations in tokamak plasmas, including fusion-born alpha-particles in JET and TFTR [Dendy et al., Nucl. Fusion 35, 1733 (1995)]. ICE is a potential diagnostic for lost alpha-particles in ITER; furthermore, the MCI is representative of a class of collective instabilities, which may result in the partial channelling of the free energy of energetic ions into radiation, and away from collisional heating of the plasma. Deep understanding of the MCI is thus of substantial practical interest for fusion, and the hybrid approximation for the plasma, where ions are treated as particles and electrons as a neutralising massless fluid, offers an attractive way forward. The hybrid simulations presented here access MCI physics that arises on timescales longer than can be addressed by fully kinetic particle-in-cell simulations and by analytical linear theory, which the present simulations largely corroborate. Our results go further than previous studies by entering into the nonlinear stage of the MCI, which shows novel features. These include stronger drive at low cyclotron harmonics, the re-energisation of the alpha-particle population, self-modulation of the phase shift between the electrostatic and electromagnetic components, and coupling between low and high frequency modes of the excited electromagnetic field.

Electron Current Drive by Fusion-Product-Excited Lower Hybrid Drift Instability

We present first principles simulations of the direct collisionless coupling of the free energy of fusion-born ions into electron current in a magnetically confined fusion plasma. These simulations demonstrate, for the first time, a key building block of some alpha channeling scenarios for tokamak experiments. Spontaneously excited obliquely propagating waves in the lower hybrid frequency range undergo Landau damping on resonant electrons, drawing out an asymmetric tail in the electron parallel velocity distribution, which carries a current.

Bi-directional Alfvén cyclotron instabilities in the mega-amp spherical tokamak

Alfven cyclotron instabilities excited by velocity gradients of energetic beam ions were investigated in MAST experiments with super-Alfvenic neutral beam injection over a wide range of toroidal magnetic fields from ∼0.34u2009T to ∼0.585u2009T. In MAST discharges with high magnetic field, a discrete spectrum of modes in the sub-cyclotron frequency range is excited toroidally propagating counter to the beam and plasma current (toroidal mode numbers nu2009 u20090 arises, in addition to the modes with nu2009 u20090 become dominant, they are observed in frequency range from ∼250 kHz for n=1 to ∼3.5u2009MHz for n=15, well above the on-axis ion cyclotron frequency (∼2.5 MHz). The data is interpreted in terms of normal and anomalous Doppler resonances modified by magnetic drift terms due to inhomogeneity and curvature of the magnetic field. A Hall MHD model is applied for computing the ...

Fast particle-driven ion cyclotron emission (ICE) in tokamak plasmas and the case for an ICE diagnostic in ITER

The detection of fast particle-driven waves in the ion cyclotron frequency range (ion cyclotron emission or ICE) could provide a passive, non-invasive diagnostic of confined and escaping fast particles (fusion α-particles and beam ions) in ITER, and would be compatible with the high radiation environment of deuterium–tritium plasmas in that device. Recent experimental results from ASDEX Upgrade and DIII-D demonstrate the efficacy of ICE as a diagnostic of different fast ion species and of fast ion losses, while recent particle-in-cell (PIC) and hybrid simulations provide a more exact comparison with measured ICE spectra and open the prospect of exploiting ICE more fully as a fast ion diagnostic in future experiments. In particular the PIC/hybrid approach should soon make it possible to simulate the nonlinear physics of ICE in full toroidal geometry. Emission has been observed previously at a wide range of poloidal angles, so there is flexibility in the location of ICE detectors. Such a detector could be implemented in ITER by installing a small toroidally orientated loop near the plasma edge or by adding a detection capability to the ion cyclotron resonance heating (ICRH) antennae. In the latter case, the antenna could be used simultaneously to heat the plasma and detect ICE, provided that frequencies close to those of the ICRH source are strongly attenuated in the detection system using a suitable filter. Wavenumber information, providing additional constraints on the fast ion distribution exciting the emission, could be obtained by measuring ICE using a toroidally distributed array of detectors or different straps of the ICRH antenna.

Particle-in-cell simulations of the magnetoacoustic cyclotron instability of fusion-born alpha-particles in tokamak plasmas

Ion cyclotron emission (ICE) is the only collective radiative instability, driven by confined fusion-born alpha-particles, observed from deuterium–tritium (DT) plasmas in both JET and TFTR. Using first principles particle-in-cell simulations of the magnetoacoustic cyclotron instability (MCI), we elucidate some of the fully kinetic nonlinear processes that may underlie observations of ICE from fusion products in these large tokamaks. We find that the MCI is intrinsically self-limiting on very fast timescales, which may help explain the observed correlation between linear theory and observed ICE intensity. The simulations elaborate the nature of the excited electric and magnetic fluctuations, from first principles, confirming the dominant role of fast Alfvenic and electrostatic components which is assumed ab initio in analytical treatments.

Self-consistent kinetic simulations of lower hybrid drift instability resulting in electron current driven by fusion products in tokamak plasmas

We present particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations of minority energetic protons in deuterium plasmas, which demonstrate a collective instability responsible for emission near the lower hybrid frequency and its harmonics. The simulations capture the lower hybrid drift instability in a parameter regime motivated by tokamak fusion plasma conditions, and show further that the excited electromagnetic fields collectively and collisionlessly couple free energy from the protons to directed electron motion. This results in an asymmetric tail antiparallel to the magnetic field. We focus on obliquely propagating modes excited by energetic ions, whose ring-beam distribution is motivated by population inversions related to ion cyclotron emission, in a background plasma with a temperature similar to that of the core of a large tokamak plasma. A fully self-consistent electromagnetic relativistic PIC code representing all vector field quantities and particle velocities in three dimensions as functions of a single spatial dimension is used to model this situation, by evolving the initial antiparallel travelling ring-beam distribution of 3 MeV protons in a background 10 keV Maxwellian deuterium plasma with realistic ion–electron mass ratio. These simulations provide a proof-of-principle for a key plasma physics process that may be exploited in future alpha channelling scenarios for magnetically confined burning plasmas.

Quantifying fusion born ion populations in magnetically confined plasmas using ion cyclotron emission

Ion cyclotron emission (ICE) offers a unique promise as a diagnostic of the fusion born alpha-particle population in magnetically confined plasmas. Pioneering observations from JET and TFTR found that ICE intensity P_{ICE} scales approximately linearly with the measured neutron flux from fusion reactions, and with the inferred concentration, n_{α}/n_{i}, of fusion born alpha particles confined within the plasma. We present fully nonlinear self-consistent kinetic simulations that reproduce this scaling for the first time. This resolves a long-standing question in the physics of fusion alpha-particle confinement and stability in magnetic confinement fusion plasmas. It confirms the magnetoacoustic cyclotron instability as the likely emission mechanism and greatly strengthens the basis for diagnostic exploitation of ICE in future burning plasmas.

Stimulated emission of fast Alfvén waves within magnetically confined fusion plasmas

A fast Alfvén wave with a finite amplitude is shown to grow by a stimulated emission process that we propose for exploitation in toroidal magnetically confined fusion plasmas. Stimulated emission occurs while the wave propagates inward through the outer midplane plasma, where a population inversion of the energy distribution of fusion-born ions is observed to arise naturally. Fully nonlinear first-principles simulations, which self-consistently evolve particles and fields under the Maxwell-Lorentz system, demonstrate this novel α-particle channeling scenario for the first time.

Gyrobunching and wave–particle resonance in the lower hybrid drift instability

We report a first principles study of the coupled evolution of energetic ions, background majority ions, electrons and electromagnetic fields in magnetized plasma during the linear phase of the lower hybrid drift instability. A particle-in-cell code, with one spatial and three velocity space co-ordinates, is used to analyse the evolving distribution of a drifting ring-beam population of energetic protons in physical space and gyrophase angle. This analysis is carried out for bulk plasma parameters that approximate to core conditions in large tokamaks, with an energetic ion distribution that is motivated by observations of ion cyclotron emission and may be relevant to alpha channelling. Resonant energy transfer occurs at the two gyrophase angles at which the instantaneous speed of an energetic proton on its cyclotron orbit precisely matches the phase velocity of the lower hybrid wave along the simulation domain. Electron space-charge oscillations determine the wavelength of the propagating lower hybrid wave, and thereby govern the spatial distribution of gyrobunching of the energetic protons that drive the instability.