On scattering and damping of Toroidal Alfven eigenmode by drift wave turbulence

TL;DR

This paper analytically demonstrates that drift wave turbulence can significantly damp toroidal Alfven eigenmodes in plasmas through the generation of kinetic Alfven waves, impacting plasma transport and heating.

Contribution

It introduces a novel damping mechanism for toroidal Alfven eigenmodes caused by drift wave turbulence, with an analytic expression for the damping rate.

Findings

Damping rate is comparable to linear drive by energetic particles.

Scattering by turbulence can influence plasma transport and heating.

Analytic expression for damping rate derived.

Abstract

We demonstrate analytically that, in toroidal plasmas, scattering by drift wave turbulence could lead to appreciable damping of toroidal Alfven eigenmodes via generation of short-wavelength electron Landau damped kinetic Alfven waves. A corresponding analytic expression of the damping rate is derived, and found to be, typically, comparable to the linear drive by energetic particles. The implications of this novel mechanism on the transport and heating processes in burning plasmas are also discussed.