Geodesic acoustic mode excitation by a spatially broad energetic particle beam

Abstract

Global radial eigenmodes of energetic-particle-induced geodesic acoustic mode are systematically studied, and their properties are found to depend on the nonuniformities of both the geodesic acoustic mode continuous spectrum and the energetic particle (EP) radial density profile. For a broad EP drive, the eigenmode equation valid for arbitrary EP drift orbit width is derived, and the excited energetic-particle-induced geodesic acoustic mode is shown to be strongly coupled to the geodesic acoustic mode continuous spectrum; resulting in a finite drive threshold in EP density. The cross-scale couplings between micro-, meso-, and macro-scales, discussed in this work, are mediated by the EP dynamics and have many interesting similarities with complex behaviors, expected in burning plasmas of fusion interest.