Measurement and Theoretical Modeling of the Damping Rate of Medium-n Toroidal Alfvén Eigenmodes in JET

This paper reports on the results of recent experiments performed on the JET tokamak on Alfvén Eigenmodes (AEs) with toroidal mode number (n) in the range |n|=3-15. The stability properties of these medium-n AEs are investigated experimentally using a set of compact in-vessel antennas, providing a direct and real-time measurement of the frequency, damping rate and amplitude for each individual toroidal mode number. First, we describe the development of a new algorithm for real-time mode detection and discrimination using the Sparse Signal Representation theory. Second, we present measurements of the dependence of the damping rate for Toroidal AEs with |n|8 upon various background plasma parameters. Finally, the results of theoretical modeling of the damping rate for n=3 Toroidal AEs, performed with the LEMan, CASTOR and TAEFL codes, are shown as function of the edge plasma elongation.