Neoclassical simulations of fusion alpha particles in pellet charge exchange experiments on the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor

Neoclassical simulations of alpha particle density profiles in high fusion power plasmas on the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor [Phys. Plasmas 5, 1577 (1998)] are found to be in good agreement with measurements of the alpha distribution function made with a sensitive active neutral particle diagnostic. The calculations are carried out in Hamiltonian magnetic coordinates with a fast, particle-following Monte Carlo code which includes the neoclassical transport processes, a recent first-principles model for stochastic ripple loss and collisional effects. New calculations show that monotonic shear alpha particles are virtually unaffected by toroidal field ripple. The calculations show that in reversed shear the confinement domain is not empty for trapped alphas at birth and allow an estimate of the actual alpha particle densities measured with the pellet charge exchange diagnostic.