Alfvén Laboratory, Teknikringen 31, KTH, SE-100 44 Stockholm, Sweden
+) CRPP, EPFL, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland, and JET, Abingdon, Oxfordshire OX14 3EA, United Kingdom
*) University of California, Irvine, CA, USA
Predictions from a gyrokinetic toroidal plasma model reproduce for the first time the evolution of Alfvén eigenmode (AE) dampings in JET over a range of discharges. The coupling between shear- and kinetic-Alfvén waves is responsible for the main source of damping through Landau interactions and can be an order of magnitude larger than fluid predictions neglecting global kinetic effects. The strongly stabilizing contribution from the magnetic shear explains why global AE have never been detected in JET in the presence of an X-point.
PACS numbers: 52.55.Fa, 52.35.Py, 52.40.Fd, 52.65.Tt
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