Quantifying Fusion Born Ion Populations in Magnetically Confined Plasmas using Ion Cyclotron Emission.
Ion cyclotron emission (ICE) offers a unique promise as a diagnostic of the fusion born alpha-particle population in magnetically confined plasmas. Pioneering observations from JET and TFTR found that ICE intensity P_{ICE} scales approximately linearly with the measured neutron flux from fusion reactions, and with the inferred concentration, n_{α}/n_{i}, of fusion born alpha particles confined within the plasma. We present fully nonlinear self-consistent kinetic simulations that reproduce this scaling for the first time. This resolves a long-standing question in the physics of fusion alpha-particle confinement and stability in magnetic confinement fusion plasmas. It confirms the magnetoacoustic cyclotron instability as the likely emission mechanism and greatly strengthens the basis for diagnostic exploitation of ICE in future burning plasmas.
Oak Ridge National Laboratory, PO Box 2008, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37831-6169, USA.|Centre for Fusion, Space and Astrophysics, Department of Physics, Warwick University, Coventry CV4 7AL, United Kingdom.
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Carbajal
Centre for Fusion, Space and Astrophysics, Department of Physics, Warwick University, Coventry CV4 7AL, United Kingdom.|CCFE, Culham Science Centre Abingdon, Oxfordshire OX14 3DB, United Kingdom.
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Dendy
Centre for Fusion, Space and Astrophysics, Department of Physics, Warwick University, Coventry CV4 7AL, United Kingdom.
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Chapman
Centre for Fusion, Space and Astrophysics, Department of Physics, Warwick University, Coventry CV4 7AL, United Kingdom.|First Light Fusion Ltd., Oxford Industrial Park, Yarnton, Oxfordshire OX5 1QU, United Kingdom.
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