Nonlinear dynamics of the fishbone-induced alpha transport on ITER

The fishbone-induced transport of alpha particles is computed for the ITER 15 MA baseline scenario (ITER Physics Expert Group on Energy Drive 1999 Nucl. Fusion39 2471) using the non-linear hybrid Kinetic-MHD code XTOR-K. Two limit cases have been studied, in order to analyse the characteristic regimes of the fishbone instability: the weak kinetic drive limit (Berk et al 1999 Phys. Plasmas6 3102) and the strong kinetic drive limit (Zonca et al 2015 New J. Phys.17 013052). In both those regimes, characteristic features of the n = m = 1 fishbone instability are recovered, such as a strong up/down-chirping of the mode frequency, associated with a resonant transport of trapped and passing alpha particles. The effects of the n = m = 0 sheared poloidal and toroidal plasma rotation are taken into account in the simulations. The shear is not negligible, which implies that the fishbone mode frequency has a radial dependency, impacting the wave-particle resonance condition. Phase space hole and clump structures are observed in both non-linear regimes, centered around the precessional and passing resonances. These structures remains attached to the resonances as the different mode frequencies chirp up and down. In the non-linear phase, the transport of individual resonant trapped particles is identified to be linked to mode-particle synchronization. On this basis, a partial mechanism for the non-linear coupling between particle transport and mode dominant down-chirping is proposed. The overall transport of alpha particles through the q = 1 surface is of order 2–5\% of the initial population between the simulations. The loss of alpha power is found to be directly equal to the loss of alpha particles.