Nonlinear excitation of fine-radial-scale zonal structures by toroidal Alfven eigenmode

TL;DR

This paper derives equations for the nonlinear evolution of toroidal Alfven eigenmodes, analyzing how energetic particles and bulk plasma influence the generation of fine-scale zonal structures in different nonlinear stages.

Contribution

It introduces a set of equations for nonlinear evolution of Alfven eigenmodes, highlighting the distinct roles of energetic particles and bulk plasma in zonal structure generation.

Findings

Energetic particles dominate ZFZS generation in initial stages.

Bulk plasma influences ZFZS in later nonlinear stages.

Properties of ZFZS include fine-scale and spontaneous excitation.

Abstract

The set of equations describing nonlinear evolution of a single toroidal Alfven eigenmode are derived, including both zero frequency zonal structure (ZFZS) generation and wave-particle phase space nonlinearities. The simplified case of neglecting wave-particle phase space nonlinearity is then investigated to focus on different roles of energetic particles and bulk plasmas on ZFZS generation. It is shown that energetic particles and bulk plasma play dominant roles in ZFZS generation in different nonlinear stages, and the corresponding processes are qualitatively different. Several properties of ZFZS generation, e.g., fine- vs. meso-scale, forced driven vs. spontaneous excitation, are clarified by the present analysis.