Abstract. On the way to a comprehensive understanding of the properties of a burning plasma the physics of super-thermal particles due to external heating and fusion reactions plays a key role. Especially Alfvén and Alfvén-acoustic type instabilities are predicted to strongly interact with the fast particle population and to contribute critically to the radial redistribution of the energetic ions. This paper focuses on the comparison of the kinetic dispersion relation for BAEs/GAMs [1] with numerical results obtained by the gyrokinetic eigenvalue code LIGKA [2] and experimental findings at ASDEX Upgrade. It is shown that thermal ions with a finite perpendicular energy (circulating and trapped) modify the dispersion relation significantly for low frequencies. The resulting frequency down-shift together with shaping and diamagnetic effects is crucial to explain the mode frequency as measured at ASDEX Upgrade stressing the importance of a kinetic description for frequencies comparable to the thermal ion transit frequency. In the second part the BAE frequency behaviour during a sawtooth-cycle is investigated and the possibility of an accurate q-profile determination via kinetic Alfvén spectroscopy is discussed.

A detailed knowledge of the interplay between MHD instabilities and energetic particles has been gained from direct measurements of fast-ion losses (FIL). Time-resolved energy and pitch angle measurements of FIL caused by Neoclassical Tearing Modes (NTMs) and Toroidicity-induced Alfven Eigenmodes (TAEs) have been obtained using a scintillator based FIL-detector. The study of FIL due to TAEs has revealed the existence of a new core localized MHD fluctuation, the Sierpes mode. The Sierpes mode is a non-pure Alfvenic fluctuation which appears in the acoustic branch, dominating the transport of fast-ions in ICRF heated discharges. The internal structure of both, TAEs and Sierpes mode has been reconstructed by means of highly-resolved multichord soft X-ray measurements. A spatial overlapping of their eigenfunctions leads to a FIL coupling, showing the strong influence that a core-localised fast-ion driven MHD instability may have on the fast-ion transport. We have identified the FIL mechanisms due to NTMs as well as due to TAEs. Drift islands formed by fast-ions in particle phase space are responsible for the loss of NBI fast-ions due to NTMs. In ICRF heated plasmas, a resonance condition fulfilled by the characteristic trapped fast-ion orbit frequencies lead to a phase-matching between fast-ion orbit and NTM or TAE magnetic fluctuation. The banana tips of a resonant trapped fast-ion bounce radially due to an E × B-drift in the TAE-case. The NTM radial bounce of the fast-ion banana tips is caused by the radial component of the perturbed magnetic field lines.

In many discharges at ASDEX Upgrade fast particle losses can be observed due to Alfvénic gap modes, Reversed Shear Alfvén Eigenmodes or core-localized Beta Alfvén Eigenmodes. For the first time, simulations of experimental conditions in the ASDEX Upgrade fusion device are performed for different plasma equilibria (particularly for different, also non-monotonic q profiles). The numerical tool is the extended version of the HAGIS code [1, 2], which also computes the particle motion in the vacuum region between vessel wall in addition to the internal plasma volume. For this work, a consistent fast particle distribution function was implemented to represent the strongly anisotropic fast particle population as generated by ICRH minority heating. Furthermore, HAGIS was extended to use more realistic eigenfunctions, calculated by the gyrokinetic eigenvalue solver LIGKA [3]. The main aim of these simulations is to allow fast ion loss measurements to be interpreted with a theoretical basis. Fast particle losses are modeled and directly compared with experimental measurements [4]. The phase space distribution and the mode-correlation signature of the fast particle losses allows them to be characterized as prompt, resonant or diffusive (non-resonant). The experimental findings are reproduced numerically. It is found that a large number of diffuse losses occur in the lower energy range (at around 1/3 of the birth energy) particularly in multiple mode scenarios (with different mode frequencies), due to a phase space overlap of resonances leading to a so-called domino [5] transport process. In inverted q profile equilibria, the combination of radially extended global modes and large particle orbits leads to losses with energies down to 1/10th of the birth energy.

Abstract. In future fusion devices fast particles must be well confined in order to transfer their energy to the background plasma. Magnetohydrodynamic instabilities like Toroidal Alfvén Eigenmodes or core-localized modes such as Beta Induced Alfvén Eigenmodes and Reversed Shear Alfvén Eigenmodes, both driven by fast particles, can lead to significant losses. This is observed in many ASDEX Upgrade discharges. The present study applies the drift-kinetic HAGIS code with the aim of understanding the underlying resonance mechanisms, especially in the presence of multiple modes with different frequencies. Of particular interest is the resonant interaction of particles simultaneously with two different modes, referred to as "doubleresonance". Various mode overlapping scenarios with different q profiles are considered. It is found that, depending on the radial mode distance, double-resonance is able to enhance growth rates as well as mode amplitudes significantly. Surprisingly, no radial mode overlap is necessary for this effect. Quite the contrary is found: small radial mode distances can lead to strong nonlinear mode stabilization of a linearly dominant mode.

The medium size divertor tokamak ASDEX Upgrade (major and minor radii 1.65 m and 0.5 m, respectively, magnetic-field strength 2.5 T) possesses flexible shaping and versatile heating and current drive systems. Recently the technical capabilities were extended by increasing the electron cyclotron resonance heating (ECRH) power, by installing 2 × 8 internal magnetic perturbation coils, and by improving the ion cyclotron range of frequency compatibility with the tungsten wall. With the perturbation coils, reliable suppression of large type-I edge localized modes (ELMs) could be demonstrated in a wide operational window, which opens up above a critical plasma pedestal density. The pellet fuelling efficiency was observed to increase which gives access to H-mode discharges with peaked density profiles at line densities clearly exceeding the empirical Greenwald limit. Owing to the increased ECRH power of 4 MW, H-mode discharges could be studied in regimes with dominant electron heating and low plasma rotation velocities, i.e. under conditions particularly relevant for ITER. The ion-pressure gradient and the neoclassical radial electric field emerge as key parameters for the transition. Using the total simultaneously available heating power of 23 MW, high performance discharges have been carried out where feed-back controlled radiative cooling in the core and the divertor allowed the divertor peak power loads to be maintained below 5 MW m−2. Under attached divertor conditions, a multi-device scaling expression for the power-decay length was obtained which is independent of major radius and decreases with magnetic field resulting in a decay length of 1 mm for ITER. At higher densities and under partially detached conditions, however, a broadening of the decay length is observed. In discharges with density ramps up to the density limit, the divertor plasma shows a complex behaviour with a localized high-density region in the inner divertor before the outer divertor detaches. Turbulent transport is studied in the core and the scrape-off layer (SOL). Discharges over a wide parameter range exhibit a close link between core momentum and density transport. Consistent with gyro-kinetic calculations, the density gradient at half plasma radius determines the momentum transport through residual stress and thus the central toroidal rotation. In the SOL a close comparison of probe data with a gyro-fluid code showed excellent agreement and points to the dominance of drift waves. Intermittent structures from ELMs and from turbulence are shown to have high ion temperatures even at large distances outside the separatrix.