Non-Resonant Decay of the Fast Magnetosonic Wave During ICRH (Ion-Cyclotron Resonance Heating) of a Tokamak Plasma.

摘要

The non-resonant decay of the fast magnetosonic wave into an Ion Bernstein wave and a quasi-mode is investigated from the point of view of assessing the importance of this process for the observed direct heating of the edge plasma during ion-cyclotron resonance heating (ICRH). Starting from the Maxwell-Vlasov equations, expressions for the threshold electric field and the growth rates of the decay process are obtained. For JET like parameters, the thresholds for the decay are easily exceeded and the growth time for typical fast wave electric field strengths is of the order of a microsecond. The parametric dependence of the threshold on magnetic field, temperature, the density of the various ion species, and electron-ion collisions is studied. Finally the relevance of this process to the heating of plasma edge during ICRH is discussed. (Atomindex citation 20:035677)