Abstract
Turbulent transport is known to limit the plasma confinement of present-day optimized stellarators. To address this issue, a novel method to strongly suppress turbulence in such devices is proposed, namely the resonant wave-particle interaction of suprathermal particles-e.g., from ion-cyclotron-resonance-frequency heating-with turbulence-driving microinstabilities like ion-temperature-gradient modes. The effectiveness of this mechanism is demonstrated via large-scale gyrokinetic simulations, revealing an overall turbulence reduction by up to 65% in the case under consideration. Comparisons with a tokamak configuration highlight the critical role played by the magnetic geometry and the first steps into the optimization of fast particle effects in stellarator devices are discussed. These results hold the promise of new and still unexplored stellarator scenarios with reduced turbulent transport, essential for achieving burning plasmas in future devices.
Highlights
Introduction.—Turbulent transport, generated by pressuregradient-driven microinstabilities and inducing significant energy and particle losses, is often a key limiting factor for the performance of magnetic confinement fusion devices
Comparisons with a tokamak configuration highlight the critical role played by the magnetic geometry and the first steps into the optimization of fast particle effects in stellarator devices are discussed
Due to the subdominant role played by the anomalous transport in previous stellarator experiments, no evidence of turbulence suppression by ICRF heating has been documented in such devices
Summary
Introduction.—Turbulent transport, generated by pressuregradient-driven microinstabilities and inducing significant energy and particle losses, is often a key limiting factor for the performance of magnetic confinement fusion devices. Turbulence Suppression by Energetic Particle Effects in Modern Optimized Stellarators
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