Effects of isotropic alpha populations on tokamak ballooning stability

Fusion product alpha populations can significantly influence tokamak stability due to coupling between the trapped alpha precessional drift and the kinetic ballooning mode frequency. Careful, quantitative evaluations of these effects are necessary in burning plasma devices such as the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor and the Joint European Torus, and we have continued systematic development of such a kinetic stability model. In this model we have considered a range of different forms for the alpha distribution function and the tokamak equilibrium. Both Maxwellian and slowing-down models have been used for the alpha energy dependence while deeply trapped and, more recently, isotropic pitch angle dependences have been examined