Observation of Alfvén Eigenmodes Driven by Off-axis Neutral Beam Injection in the TCV Tokamak

Abstract

Fast-particle driven Alfvén Eigenmodes have been observed in low-collisionality discharges with off-axis neutral beam injection (NBI), electron cyclotron resonance heating (ECRH) and a reduced toroidal magnetic field. During NBI and ECRH, toroidicity induced Alfvén Eigenmodes (TAEs) appear in frequency bands close to 200 kHz and energetic-particle-induced geodesic acoustic modes (EGAMs) are observed at about 40 and 80 kHz. When turning off ECRH in the experiment, those beam-driven modes disappear which can be explained by a modification of the fast-ion slowing down distribution. In contrast, coherent fluctuations close to the frequency of the beam-driven TAEs are present throughout the experiment. The modes are even observed during ohmic plasma conditions, which clearly demonstrates that they are not caused by fast particles and suggests an alternative drive, such as turbulence. The mode-induced fast-ion transport has been found to be weak and marginal in terms of the fast-ion diagnostic sensitivities. Measurements of the plasma stored energy, neutron rates, neutral particle fluxes and fast-ion D-alpha spectroscopy show good agreement with neoclassical modelling results from TRANSP. This is further supported by a similarly good agreement between measurement and modelling in cases with and without ECRH and therefore with and without the modes. Instead, a significant level of charge exchange losses are predicted and observed which generate a bump-on-tail fast-ion distribution function that can provide the necessary free energy to EGAMs.