High frequency mode generation by toroidal Alfven eigenmodes

Abstract

Nonlinear generation of high frequency mode (HFM) by toroidal Alfven eigenmode (TAE) observed in HL-2A tokamak is analyzed using nonlinear gyrokinetic theory. It is found that, the HFM can be dominated by $|nq-m|=1$ perturbations with predominantly ideal magnetohydrodynamic if the two primary TAEs are co-propagating; while the HFM can be characterized by $nq-m=0$ electrostatic perturbations if the two primary TAEs are counter-propagating. Here, $n$ and $m$ are respectively the toroidal and poloidal mode numbers, and $q$ is the safety factor. The nonlinear process is sensitive to the equilibrium magnetic geometry of the device.