Conventional and nonconventional global Alfvén eigenmodes in stellarators

Conditions of the existence of the Global Alfvén Eigenmodes (GAE) and Nonconventional Global Alfvén Eigenmodes (NGAE) predicted for stellarators by Ya. I. Kolesnichenko et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 94, 165004 (2005)] have been obtained. It is found that they depend on the nature of the rotational transform and that conditions for NGAE can be most easily satisfied in currentless stellarators. It is shown that the plasma compressibility may play an important role for the modes with the frequency about or less than that of the Toroidicity-induced Alfvén Eigenmodes. It is found that features of the Alfvén continuum in the vicinity of the k‖=0 radius (k‖ is the longitudinal wave number) can be very different, depending on a parameter which we refer to as “the sound parameter.” Specific calculations modeling low-frequency Alfvén instabilities in the stellarator Wendelstein 7-AS [A. Weller et al., Phys. Plasmas 8, 931 (2001)] are carried out, which are in reasonable agreement with the observations. It is emphasized that experimental data on low-frequency Alfvénic activity can be used for the reconstruction of the profile of the rotational transform. The mentioned results are obtained with the use of the equations derived in this paper for the GAE/NGAE modes and of the codes COBRAS and BOA-fe.