Carbajal L, Dendy R O, Chapman S C, Cook J W S
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.
Phys Rev Lett. 2017 Mar 10;118(10):105001. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.118.105001. Epub 2017 Mar 7.
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.
离子回旋辐射（ICE）作为一种诊断磁约束等离子体中聚变产生的α粒子群体的方法，展现出独特的前景。来自JET和TFTR的开创性观测发现，ICE强度P_ICE与聚变反应测得的中子通量以及等离子体中约束的聚变产生的α粒子的推断浓度n_α/n_i大致呈线性比例关系。我们首次展示了完全非线性自洽的动力学模拟，该模拟再现了这种比例关系。这解决了磁约束聚变等离子体中聚变α粒子约束和稳定性物理学中一个长期存在的问题。它证实了磁声回旋不稳定性是可能的发射机制，并大大加强了未来燃烧等离子体中ICE诊断应用的基础。
