Mode–particle resonances during near-tangential neutral beam injection in the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor

Abstract

Coherent magnetohydrodynamic modes have been observed previously during neutral beam injection in the PDX tokamak [Phys. Rev. Lett. 50, 891 (1983)] and they have now been seen in the TFTR tokamak [Phys. Fluids 26, 2958 (1983)]. Periodic bursts of oscillations were detected with several plasma diagnostics, and Fokker–Planck calculations show that the populations of trapped particles in both tokamaks are sufficient to account for fishbone destabilization if a resonant interaction, between the mode and the beam ions, is assumed. Estimates of mode parameters are in reasonable agreement with the experiments, and they indicate that the fishbone mode may continue to affect the performance of intensely heated tokamaks.