ENERGY DESCRIPTION OF WAVE-PLASMA INTERACTION IN THE ION-CYCLOTRON RANGE OF FREQUENCY - APPLICATION TO FAST-WAVE ABSORPTION AND EMISSION INTOKAMAKS

An alternative description of the energy transfer between an electroma gnetic wave and a tokamak plasma is presented. It involves the evaluat ion of local coefficients of emission and absorption and leads to rapi d numerical procedures. This method allows a coherent description of e mission and absorption processes and is thus particularly suited for t he determination of the rf electromagnetic energy radiated from the pl asma, asis shown by calculating ion cyclotron emission spectra. Furthe rmore, this ''fluid'' energy description proves also useful for the ev aluation of the fast wave plasma absorption during ion cyclotron range of frequency (ICRF) heating: a fast ''fluid'' one-dimensional slab nu merical code has been developed. It cannot cope with singularities of the wave vector such as resonance or cutoff, but it is well adapted to scenario designs of fast wave direct coupling to electrons and evalua tion of partitioning of energy between species in the case of ions hig h harmonics. (C) 1997 American Institute of Physics.