On shear Alfv\'en wave-induced energetic ion transport in optimized stellarators

TL;DR

This study examines how shear Alfvén waves cause energetic ion losses in optimized stellarators, revealing that certain magnetic configurations are more susceptible to wave-induced stochasticity and prompt particle losses.

Contribution

It introduces a generalized semi-analytical resonance model for energetic particles in quasi-symmetric stellarators and analyzes the impact of magnetic geometry on wave-induced ion losses.

Findings

Increased field periods suppress stochasticity in QH and QI stellarators.

Wave-induced transitions cause significant ion losses in QA and QH configurations.

Prompt alpha particle losses occur at specific SAW amplitudes related to stochasticity onset.

Abstract

In this work, we investigate prompt ion drift orbit losses caused by shear Alfv\'en waves (SAW) in quasi-symmetric (QS) and quasi-isodynamic (QI) stellarators optimized for equilibrium confinement of energetic particles (EPs). We use the ideal reduced MHD model for SAW perturbations and study their impact on collisionless EP drift dynamics. We present a semi-analytical model for resonance between the passing EP and SAW, generalized to arbitrary quasi-symmetric configurations including the quasi-poloidal case relevant to QI equilibria. Analysis reveals that an increase in the number of field periods suppresses stochasticity in quasi-helical (QH) and quasi-isodynamic, but not quasi-axissymmetric (QA) stellarators. We show that wave-induced transitions between passing and trapped orbits cause significant losses in QA and QH, but not in QI configurations. For the considered equilibria at scales relevant to fusion power plants (FPPs), we numerically determine SAW amplitudes needed to induce prompt loss of fusion-born alpha particles. Using the weighted Birkhoff averaging technique, we confirm that the onset of prompt losses across all orbit classes occurs with the onset of stochasticity in ion motion. This motivates extending the stochasticity-onset criterion beyond passing orbits in future work.