Toroidal Alfvén Eigenmodes in Globus-M Spherical Tokamak Plasma

Abstract

Conditions of the excitation of toroidal Alfvén eigenmodes (TAEs) and their inf luence on the confinement of fast particles into the Globus-M spherical tokamak have been studied by KINX code calculations of the magnetohydrodynamic spectra of reconstructed divertor equilibrium configurations with stability margin q₀ > 1 on the magnetic axis. The sensitivity of the frequencies of TAE modes with toroidal wavenumber n = 1 to the type of boundary conditions and choice of boundary surface has been studied. It has been established that the frequencies of modes with dominating poloidal harmonics m = 1 and 2 in the gap of continuum are significantly higher than those observed in the spectra of signals measured in the Mirnov coil probes, especially under the assumption of free plasma boundary with allowance for its compressibility. The TAE modes with lower frequencies and higher poloidal wavenumbers localized near the plasma boundary may be responsible for the oscillations observed in the experiment. However, these modes are characterized by the interaction with continuum and, probably, exhibit related damping.