Landau damping of Alfvénic modes in stellarators

Abstract

It is found that the presence of the so-called non-axisymmetric resonances of wave–particle interaction in stellarators (which are associated with the lack of axial symmetry of the magnetic configuration, Kolesnichenko et al 2002 Phys. Plasmas 9 517) may have a strong stabilizing influence through Landau mechanism on the toroidicity-induced Alfvén Eigenmodes (TAE) and isomon modes (Alfvénic modes with equal poloidal and toroidal mode numbers and frequencies in the continuum region) destabilized by the energetic ions. These resonances involve largest harmonics of the equilibrium magnetic field of stellarators and lead to absorption of the mode energy by thermal ions in medium pressure plasma, in which case the effect is large. On the other hand, at the high pressure attributed to, e.g., a Helias reactor, thermal ions can interact also with high frequency Alfvén gap modes (helicity-induced Alfvén Eigenmodes and mirror-induced Alfvén Eigenmodes), leading to a considerable damping of these modes. Only resonances with passing particles are considered. The developed theory is applied to various modes in the Wendelstein 7-X stellarator and a Helias reactor, and to two TAE modes in the LHD helical device.