Experimental observation of the geodesic acoustic frequency limit for the NBI-driven Alfvén eigenmodes in TJ-II

Abstract

We study Alfvén eigenmodes (AEs) in the TJ-II heliac in hydrogen plasmas heated by hydrogen co-field neutral beam injector. Taking advantage of the unique TJ-II flexibility in a varying plasma current, we have observed strong variation of the AE frequency from fAE ∼ 30 to ∼220 kHz for selected modes. An advanced heavy-ion beam probe diagnostic determines the spatial location and internal amplitudes of the modes. The modes satisfy a local AE dispersion relation including the geodesic acoustic frequency that represents the lowest frequency of the mode. Linear MHD modeling with STELLGAP and FAR3D codes shows that the calculated temporal evolution of the mode frequency reproduces the observed maxima and minima at the same time intervals with a similar frequency range, and the radial profile peaks near the outer edge of the observed one.