CURRENT DRIVE BY LOWER HYBRID WAVES IN THE PRESENCE OF ENERGETIC ALPHA-PARTICLES

Many experiments have proved the effectiveness of lower hybrid waves for driving toroidal current in tokamaks. However, the use of these waves to provide all the current in a reactor is thought to be uncertain because it may happen that the waves do not penetrate into the centre of the more energetic reactor plasma and, if they do, the wave power may be absorbed by alpha particles rather than by electrons, The paper addresses mathematically the interaction between lower hybrid waves and alpha particles.