Temperature gradient driven Alfvén instability producing inward energy flux in stellarators

Destabilizing influence of plasma inhomogeneity on Alfvén eigenmodes in stellarators is considered. It is found that the diamagnetic frequency can strongly increase due to the resonance interaction of particles and Alfvén eigenmodes. This occurs when the particle resonance velocity exceeds the thermal velocity, in which case the role of superthermal particles enlarges. Then Alfvén eigenmodes can be destabilized even in the absence of the energetic ion population. It is shown that in the case of the temperature distribution with a large gradient at the periphery, the destabilized mode can channel the energy from the peripheral plasma region to the inner region. A stability analysis employing a model temperature profile of the ions was carried out for the Wendelstein 7-X stellarator. It indicates that the considered mechanism could lead to an Alfvén instability accompanied with the inward energy flux in the first W7-X experiments where long-lasting high-frequency oscillations were observed.