skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: β-Suppression of Alfvén Cascade Modes in the National Spherical Torus Experiment

Technical Report ·
DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/962716· OSTI ID:962716

The coupling of Alfvén Cascade (AC) modes or reversed-shear Alfvén eigenmodes (rsAE) to Geodesic Acoustic Modes (GAM) implies that the range of the AC frequency sweep is reduced as the electron β is increased. This model provides an explanation for the otherwise surprising absence of AC modes in reverse shear NSTX plasmas, given the rich spectrum of beam-driven instabilities typically seen in NSTX. In experiments done at very low β to investigate this prediction, AC modes were seen, and as the βe was increased from shot to shot, the range of the AC frequency sweep was reduced, in agreement with this theoretical prediction.

Research Organization:
Princeton Plasma Physics Lab. (PPPL), Princeton, NJ (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC)
DOE Contract Number:
DE-ACO2-76CHO3073
OSTI ID:
962716
Report Number(s):
PPPL-4253; TRN: US0903676
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English