Collisionless microinstabilities in stellarators I - analytical theory of trapped-particle modes

This is the first of two papers about collisionless, electrostatic micro-instabilities in stellarators, with an emphasis on trapped-particle modes. It is found that, in so-called maximum-$J$ configurations, trapped-particle instabilities are absent in large regions of parameter space. Quasi-isodynamic stellarators have this property (approximately), and the theory predicts that trapped electrons are stabilizing to all eigenmodes with frequencies below the electron bounce frequency. The physical reason is that the bounce-averaged curvature is favorable for all orbits, and that trapped electrons precess in the direction opposite to that in which drift waves propagate, thus precluding wave-particle resonance. These considerations only depend on the electrostatic energy balance, and are independent of all geometric properties of the magnetic field other than the maximum-$J$ condition. However, if the aspect ratio is large and the instability phase velocity differs greatly from the electron and ion thermal speeds, it is possible to derive a variational form for the frequency showing that stability prevails in a yet larger part of parameter space than what follows from the energy argument. Collisionless trapped-electron modes should therefore be more stable in quasi-isodynamic stellarators than in tokamaks.Comment: 9 pages, 1 figur

Collisionless microinstabilities in stellarators II - numerical simulations

Microinstabilities exhibit a rich variety of behavior in stellarators due to the many degrees of freedom in the magnetic geometry. It has recently been found that certain stellarators (quasi-isodynamic ones with maximum-$J$ geometry) are partly resilient to trapped-particle instabilities, because fast-bouncing particles tend to extract energy from these modes near marginal stability. In reality, stellarators are never perfectly quasi-isodynamic, and the question thus arises whether they still benefit from enhanced stability. Here the stability properties of Wendelstein 7-X and a more quasi-isodynamic configuration, QIPC, are investigated numerically and compared with the National Compact Stellarator Experiment (NCSX) and the DIII-D tokamak. In gyrokinetic simulations, performed with the gyrokinetic code GENE in the electrostatic and collisionless approximation, ion-temperature-gradient modes, trapped-electron modes and mixed-type instabilities are studied. Wendelstein 7-X and QIPC exhibit significantly reduced growth rates for all simulations that include kinetic electrons, and the latter are indeed found to be stabilizing in the energy budget. These results suggest that imperfectly optimized stellarators can retain most of the stabilizing properties predicted for perfect maximum-$J$ configurations.Comment: 15 pages, 40 figure

Performance of Wendelstein 7-X stellarator plasmas during the first divertor operation phase

Wendelstein 7-X is the first comprehensively optimized stellarator aiming at good confinement with plasma parameters relevant to a future stellarator power plant. Plasma operation started in 2015 using a limiter configuration. After installing an uncooled magnetic island divertor, extending the energy limit from 4 to 80 MJ, operation continued in 2017. For this phase, the electron cyclotron resonance heating (ECRH) capability was extended to 7 MW, and hydrogen pellet injection was implemented. The enhancements resulted in the highest triple product (6.5 × 1019 keV m-3 s) achieved in a stellarator until now. Plasma conditions [Te(0) ≈ Ti(0) ≈ 3.8 keV, τE &gt; 200 ms] already were in the stellarator reactor-relevant ion-root plasma transport regime. Stable operation above the 2nd harmonic ECRH X-mode cutoff was demonstrated, which is instrumental for achieving high plasma densities in Wendelstein 7-X. Further important developments include the confirmation of low intrinsic error fields, the observation of current-drive induced instabilities, and first fast ion heating and confinement experiments. The efficacy of the magnetic island divertor was instrumental in achieving high performance in Wendelstein 7-X. Symmetrization of the heat loads between the ten divertor modules could be achieved by external resonant magnetic fields. Full divertor power detachment facilitated the extension of high power plasmas significantly beyond the energy limit of 80 MJ.</p

Towards a new image processing system at Wendelstein 7-X:From spatial calibration to characterization of thermal events

Wendelstein 7-X (W7-X) is the most advanced fusion experiment in the stellarator line and is aimed at proving that the stellarator concept is suitable for a fusion reactor. One of the most important issues for fusion reactors is the monitoring of plasma facing components when exposed to very high heat loads, through the use of visible and infrared (IR) cameras. In this paper, a new image processing system for the analysis of the strike lines on the inboard limiters from the first W7-X experimental campaign is presented. This system builds a model of the IR cameras through the use of spatial calibration techniques, helping to characterize the strike lines by using the information given by real spatial coordinates of each pixel. The characterization of the strike lines is made in terms of position, size, and shape, after projecting the camera image in a 2D grid which tries to preserve the curvilinear surface distances between points. The description of the strike-line shape is made by means of the Fourier Descriptors.</p