UC Irvine

The internal structure of the toroidicity-induced Alfvén eigenmode (TAE) is studied by comparing soft x-ray profile and beam ion loss data taken during TAE activity in the DIII-D tokamak [W. W. Heidbrink et al., Nucl. Fusion 37, 1411 (1997)] with predictions from theories based on ideal magnetohydrodynamic (MHD), gyrofluid, and gyrokinetic models. The soft x-ray measurements indicate a centrally peaked eigenfunction, a feature which is closest to the gyrokinetic model's prediction. The beam ion losses are simulated using a guiding center code. In the simulations, the TAE eigenfunction calculated using the ideal MHD model acts as a perturbation to the equilibrium field. The predicted beam ion losses are an order of magnitude less than the observed ∼6%-8% losses at the peak experimental amplitude of δBr/B0≃2-5×10-4. © 2001 American Institute of Physics.