A linear model of synergetic current drive with lower-hybrid wave and electron cyclotron wave

Abstract A linear model of synergetic current drive (SCD) with lower-hybrid wave (LHW) and electron cyclotron wave (ECW) is developed to quickly calculate the quantitative SCD efficiency and reveal the conditions for the occurrence of the synergy effect. In this model, the response function dominated by collisions in the presence of LHW is derived from the adjoint equations by using perturbation and Green-function techniques, where the relativistic and trapping effects are considered. The SCD results compared to LinLiu’s ECW current drive (ECCD) efficiency show two features of the synergy effect, one is that it is inclined to occur at smaller <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" overflow="scroll"> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>y</mml:mi> <mml:mo>=</mml:mo> <mml:mn>2</mml:mn> <mml:msub> <mml:mi>ω</mml:mi> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi mathvariant="normal">c</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> </mml:msub> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>/</mml:mo> </mml:mrow> <mml:mi>ω</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> with the fixed ECW parallel refractive index <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" overflow="scroll"> <mml:mrow> <mml:msub> <mml:mi>n</mml:mi> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>∥</mml:mo> </mml:mrow> </mml:msub> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> , and the other is that the threshold values of y , at which the synergy effect becomes sufficiently significant, shifts towards higher values with a decreasing <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" overflow="scroll"> <mml:mrow> <mml:msub> <mml:mi>n</mml:mi> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>∥</mml:mo> </mml:mrow> </mml:msub> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> ; the SCD results without the trapping effect and the response function without relativistic effect have been provided. The quasilinear simulation on ECCD and SCD efficiency with a two-dimensional Fokker–Planck code is consistent with the results of the linear model in trends. Given considerable parameters improvement nowadays, the SCD efficiencies with parameters of current mainstream reactors are calculated in this work. We provide the current profile of ECCD and SCD by combining with GENRAY, showing the potential application of integrating SCD into ray-tracing code. Criteria for the occurrence and the sufficient significance of the synergy effect are suggested, which indicate that the synergy effect is dependent on the power factor that quantifies the degree of the overlap of the two waves’ quasilinear domains, the LHW power, and synergy electrons.