Interaction of sawteeth, Alfven eigenmodes, and fast ion transport: Progress in predictive understanding and challenges for burning plasma experiments
S. Bernabei
Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory
Recent experiments have shown that the stability and onset condition for the m=1 sawtooth mode is strongly tied to the stability of Alfven eigenmodes in tokamak plasmas. Observations in TFTR show that the condition for the onset of the sawtooth is strongly determined by the existence of Toroidal Alfven Eigenmodes in the core of plasmas with minority ICRF heating. We discuss the implications of these recent analysis results on predictions concerning sawtooth behavior in a tokamak burning plasma experiment and the scientific contribution of such an experiment to fast ion research. Progress in recent quantitative analysis and developments in predictive understanding will be discussed.