Runaway-ripple interaction in Tokamaks

Two approaches of the interaction between runaway electrons and the ripple field, in tokamaks, are discussed. The first approach considers the resonance effect as an intense cyclotron heating of the electrons, by the ripple field, in the guiding center frame of the fast particles. In the second approach, an Hamiltonian formalism is used. A criterion for the onset of chaotic behavior and the results are given. A new universal instability of the runaway population in tokamak configuration is found. When combined with cyclotron losses one of its major consequence is to act as an effective slowing down mechanism preventing the free fall acceleration toward the synchrotron limit. This configuration allows the explanation of some experimental results of Tore Supra and Textor