An upper pressure limit for low-Z benign termination of runaway electron beams in TCV

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Hoppe, M, Decker, J, Sheikh, U, Coda, S, Colandrea, C, Duval, B, Ficker, O, Halldestam, P, Jachmich, S, Lehnen, M, Reimerdes, H, Paz-Soldan, C, Pedrini, M, Reux, C, Simons, L, Vincent, B, Wijkamp, T, Zurita, M, team, the TCV, Team, the EUROfusion Tokamak Exploitation
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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author Hoppe, M
Decker, J
Sheikh, U
Coda, S
Colandrea, C
Duval, B
Ficker, O
Halldestam, P
Jachmich, S
Lehnen, M
Reimerdes, H
Paz-Soldan, C
Pedrini, M
Reux, C
Simons, L
Vincent, B
Wijkamp, T
Zurita, M
team, the TCV
Team, the EUROfusion Tokamak Exploitation
author_facet Hoppe, M
Decker, J
Sheikh, U
Coda, S
Colandrea, C
Duval, B
Ficker, O
Halldestam, P
Jachmich, S
Lehnen, M
Reimerdes, H
Paz-Soldan, C
Pedrini, M
Reux, C
Simons, L
Vincent, B
Wijkamp, T
Zurita, M
team, the TCV
Team, the EUROfusion Tokamak Exploitation
contents We present a model for the particle balance in the post-disruption runaway electron plateau phase of a tokamak discharge. The model is constructed with the help of, and applied to, experimental data from TCV discharges investigating the so-called ``low-Z benign termination'' runaway electron mitigation scheme. In the benign termination scheme, the free electron density is first reduced in order for a subsequently induced MHD instability to grow rapidly and spread the runaway electrons widely across the wall. We show that the observed non-monotonic dependence of the free electron density with the measured neutral pressure is due to plasma re-ionization induced by runaway electron impact ionization. At higher neutral pressures, more target particles are present in the plasma for runaway electrons to collide with and ionize. Parameter scans are conducted to clarify the role of the runaway electron density and energy on the free electron density, and it is found that only the runaway electron density has a noticeable impact. While the free electron density is shown to be related to the spread of heat fluxes at termination, the exact cause for the upper neutral pressure limit remains undetermined and an object for further study.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2412_14721
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle An upper pressure limit for low-Z benign termination of runaway electron beams in TCV
Hoppe, M
Decker, J
Sheikh, U
Coda, S
Colandrea, C
Duval, B
Ficker, O
Halldestam, P
Jachmich, S
Lehnen, M
Reimerdes, H
Paz-Soldan, C
Pedrini, M
Reux, C
Simons, L
Vincent, B
Wijkamp, T
Zurita, M
team, the TCV
Team, the EUROfusion Tokamak Exploitation
Plasma Physics
We present a model for the particle balance in the post-disruption runaway electron plateau phase of a tokamak discharge. The model is constructed with the help of, and applied to, experimental data from TCV discharges investigating the so-called ``low-Z benign termination'' runaway electron mitigation scheme. In the benign termination scheme, the free electron density is first reduced in order for a subsequently induced MHD instability to grow rapidly and spread the runaway electrons widely across the wall. We show that the observed non-monotonic dependence of the free electron density with the measured neutral pressure is due to plasma re-ionization induced by runaway electron impact ionization. At higher neutral pressures, more target particles are present in the plasma for runaway electrons to collide with and ionize. Parameter scans are conducted to clarify the role of the runaway electron density and energy on the free electron density, and it is found that only the runaway electron density has a noticeable impact. While the free electron density is shown to be related to the spread of heat fluxes at termination, the exact cause for the upper neutral pressure limit remains undetermined and an object for further study.
title An upper pressure limit for low-Z benign termination of runaway electron beams in TCV
topic Plasma Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2412.14721