An extended hybrid magnetohydrodynamics gyrokinetic model for numerical simulation of shear Alfvén waves in burning plasmas

Adopting the theoretical framework for the generalized fishbonelike dispersion relation, an extended hybrid magnetohydrodynamics gyrokinetic simulation model has been derived analytically by taking into account both thermal ion compressibility and diamagnetic effects in addition to energetic particle kinetic behaviors. The extended model has been used for implementing an extended version of hybrid magnetohydrodynamics gyrokinetic code (XHMGC) to study thermal ion kinetic effects on Alfvénic modes driven by energetic particles, such as kinetic beta induced Alfvén eigenmodes in tokamak fusion plasmas. The XHMGC nonlinear model can be used to address a number of problems, where kinetic treatments of both thermal and supra-thermal plasma components are necessary, as theoretically predicted, or where it is desirable to investigate the phenomena connected with the presence of two supra-thermal particle species with different radial profiles and velocity space distributions. VC 2011 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3587080]