The role of wave-particle decorrelation mechanisms in ICRF heating of toroidal plasmas

Wave-particle decorrelation mechanisms affect the ICRF heating efficiency. Depending on the relative magnitude of the bounce and decorrelation times, three regimes are distinguished. When the decorrelation is due to collisions, these three regimes roughly correspond to thermal, a and RF induced tail particles, respectively. Heating efficiencies may be significantly lower than predicted by models assuming uncorrelated resonance crossings; this has an immediate bearing on superadiabatic α particles which will then absorb less ICRH power.