Fast particle physics on ASDEX Upgrade

Beyond a certain heating power, measured and predicted distributions of NBI driven currents deviate from each other, in a form that can be explained by the assumption of a modest diffusion of fast particles. Direct numerical simulation of fast test particles in a given field of electrostatic turbulence indicates that for reasonable parameters fast and thermal particle diffusion indeed are similar. - High quality plasma edge plasma profiles on ASDEX Upgrade, used in the linear, gyrokinetic, global stability code LIGKA give excellent agreement with the eigenfunction measured by a newly extended reflectometry system for ICRH-excited TAE-modes. They support the hypothesis of TAE-frequency crossing of the continuum in the edge region as explanation of the high TAE-damping rates measured on JET.- A new fast ion loss detector with 1MHz time resolution allows frequency and phase resolved correlation between low frequency magnetic perturbation, giving, together with modelling of the particle orbits, new insights into the mechanism of fast particle losses during NBI and ICRH due to helical perturbations. (author)