Damping of toroidal Alfvén modes in DIII-D

Abstract

The previously developed single-gap kinetic theory for toroidicity-induced Alfvén eigenmodes (TAE) is extended and applied to Doublet III-D [J. L. Luxon and L. G. Davis, Fusion Technol. 8, 441 (1985)] experimental data. It is found that the theory gives reasonable agreement with the data when an appropriate magnetohydrodynamic boundary condition is accounted for. As is shown, this boundary condition is equivalent to an appropriate real frequency shift relative to the continuum gap. The correct eigenfunction near the gap, and thus the correct damping, is obtained by using the gap structure calculated from an equilibrium reconstruction that includes low aspect ratio, noncircularity, and finite beta effects, combined with an experimentally measured frequency. In the considered experimental cases, the damping is well into the nonideal regime.