Doublet splitting of fusion alpha particle driven ion cyclotron emission

Abstract

Abstract Ion cyclotron emission (ICE) originating from confined populations of fast ions in toroidal fusion plasmas is an important non-invasive, passive diagnostic for current and next-generation devices. The ability to model ICE signals accurately is an essential step towards inferring the characteristics of confined energetic alpha particles or fast neutral beam ions and background plasma. In this paper, the linear growth rates of the magnetoacoustic cyclotron instability, which is the leading explanation for ICE, are calculated in high-resolution 2D ( k ⊥ , k ∥ ) space for parameters corresponding to JET Pulse No. 26148. These calculations further highlight the origin of doublet splitting of the cyclotron harmonics and the perceived need to invoke nonlinear interactions with 1D3V particle-in-cell studies to account for lower harmonics with substantial amplitudes. The inclusion of signals of ICE from a well-resolved range of propagation angles can also account for these effects.