Observation and Simulation of n = 1 Reversed Shear Alfvén Eigenmode on the HL-2A Tokamak

Abstract

A branch of high frequency Alfvénic mode is observed on the HL-2A tokamak. The electromagnetic mode can be driven unstable in the plasma with an off-axis neutral beam heating. Its mode frequency keeps almost unchanged or presents a slow-sweeping behavior, depending on the detail current evolution. The poloidal and toroidal mode numbers are $m/n=1/1$. The mode has a quite short duration ($\leq20 $ ms) and usually appears 5-10 ms after the neutral beam being injected into the plasma. Hybrid simulations based on M3D-K have also been carried out. The result suggests that co-passing energetic particles are responsible for the mode excitation. The simulated mode structures are localized nearby location of minimum safety factor ($q_{min}$) and agree with the structures obtained through tomography of soft x-ray arrays. Further, the modes are localized in the continuum gap and their frequencies increase with variation of $q_{min}$ in a wide range. Last but not least, the characteristic of unchanged frequency on experiment is also reproduced by the nonlinear simulation with a fixed safety factor. All those evidences indicate that the $n=1$ high frequency mode may belong to a reversed shear Alfvén eigenmode (RSAE).