Abstract
High-frequency electromagnetic modes are routinely being observed in the Tokamak à Configuration Variable (TCV) during runaway electron (RE) experiments. These modes lie in the lower hybrid frequency range, between the ion cyclotron and electron cyclotron frequencies, and have also been reported in other tokamaks such as DIII-D [1,2] and FTU [3].
Theory and recent experiments suggest that such high-frequency modes can enhance the pitch-angle scattering of REs [4] and help reduce their maximum energy [5], while also providing a diagnostic tool for the underlying RE distribution functions.
This contribution aims at characterizing these high-frequency modes in TCV by introducing a new simulation framework for tokamak RE plasmas, coupling the Fokker-Planck code LUKE [6] with the linear plasma wave solver ALPS [7] -- the latter originally developed for astrophysical plasmas and here applied to tokamak parameters for the first time. RE distribution functions generated by LUKE are passed as input to ALPS, which computes the resulting waves for arbitrary distributions. This LUKE-ALPS framework is then benchmarked against experimental TCV observations, using high frequency electromagnetic wave diagnostics (ICE, LHPI) and hard X-ray diagnostics (BGO, LaBrDoRE).
Preliminary results and the current status of this benchmarking effort will be presented, with the aim of establishing a consistent picture connecting the wave signatures measured by ICE and LHPI with the hard X-ray spectra measured by LaBrDoRE.
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