Transition of MHD kink-stability properties between line-tied and non-line-tied boundary conditions

Magnetic flux tubes or flux ropes in plasmas are important in nature and the laboratory. Axial boundary conditions strongly affect flux rope behavior, but this has never been systematically investigated. We experimentally demonstrate for the first time axial boundary conditions that are continuously varied between ideal magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) line-tied (fixed) and non-line-tied (free). In contrast with the usual interpretation that mechanical plasma motion is MHD line-tied to a conducting boundary, we constrain boundary plasma motion to cause the line-tied condition.     

CRITICAL MAGNETIC SHEAR FOR THE TOKAMAK IDEAL INTERNAL KINK MODE IN THE ION KINETIC REGIME

It is shown that for the ideal internal kink mode of tokamak plasma, there exists a critical magnetic shear s_0c for its excitation when the finite ion Larmor radius effect is considered in the mode singular layer. This can be related to the sudden onset of the sawtooth and also to the stabilization of the sawtooth by the trapped hot ions observed experimentally. The alpha particle effect on this mode is revisited and some new results are reported.     

Intermediate nonlinear evolution of the Parker instability: formation of convection-induced discontinuities and absence of finite-time singularities

Direct numerical simulations of the line-tied Parker (or magnetic Rayleigh-Taylor) instability, based on the fully compressible ideal magnetohydrodynamic equations, are presented. In the intermediate nonlinear phase, the instability continues to grow exponentially in time and the plasma tends to develop convection-induced discontinuities in the form of shocklike coherent structures. No evidence of finite-time singularities is seen.     

Effect of trapped energetic ions on MHD activity in spherical tori

It is shown that the increase of β (the ratio of plasma pressure to the magnetic field pressure) may change the character of the influence of trapped energetic ions on MHD stability in spherical tori. Namely, the energetic ions, which stabilize MHD modes (such as the ideal kink mode, collisionless tearing mode and semi-collisional tearing mode) at low β, have a destabilizing influence at high β unless the radial distribution of the energetic ions is very peaked.     

Current-driven rotating-kink mode in a plasma column with a non-line-tied free end

First experimental measurements are presented for the kink instability in a linear plasma column which is insulated from an axial boundary by finite sheath resistivity. An instability threshold below the classical Kruskal-Shafranov threshold, axially asymmetric mode structure, and rotation are observed. These are accurately reproduced by a recent kink theory, which includes axial plasma flow and one end of the plasma column that is free to move due to a non-line-tied boundary condition.     

Compound sawtooth in EAST LHCD plasma:An experimental study

A compound sawtooth with an incomplete relaxation was observed in EAST’s lower hybrid current drive(LHCD)plasma. The sub-crash phase of the compound sawtooth corresponds to a longer-lasting and slower-growing 1/1 mode.Based on the two-dimensional(2D) SXR tomography, the time-dependent 2D image of a compound sawtooth crash is obtained. The island produced during a resistive internal kink mode is observed in the all crash phases of the compound sawtooth. The destabilization of 1/1 long-lasting saturated 1/1 mode is related to the current driven by the LHCD near the q = 1 surface.     

Simplified Ideal MHD Normal Mode Equations for Toroidal Axisymmetric Plasmas

The ideal MHD normal mode equations for general toroidal axisymmetric plasmas can be significantly simplified by properly treating the compressibility team limiting cases: and c_s is the plasma sound velocity.These equations describing the general global modes (the low n, m mode) contain only two scalar functions. For tokamak plasmas, a further simplification, the shear Alfven approkimation, is introduced. It makes possible to describe the global mode by a simplified eigenmode equation with only one scalar function. This eigenequation, similar to the reduced tokamak equations widely used in recent literatures, provides a unified way to analyze the kink, Alfven spectrum and MHD TAE modes.     

托卡马克中宏观束-等离子体扭曲模不稳定性研究

本文主要研究了具有单一高能离子分量的托卡马克等离子体扭曲模宏观不稳定性。它基本上模拟了中性束平行注入经过电离和电荷交换后在本底等离子体中维持一个稳恒等离子体流的物理过程。高能和本底都用无碰撞的Vlasov等离子体,并取了低频、小拉莫尔半径极限。由于主要考虑束-等离子体无耗散宏观不稳定性,故可用能量原理来分析。结果表明,高能离子束对本底等离子体的外部模没有影响,只影响内部扭曲模的增长率和扰动振幅。对适当选择的速度剖面,束能够完全稳定体系n≥2,m=1模,与Dunlap线性理论结果相反而与目前实验观测一致。m/n=1/1内部扭曲模增长率在所取得模型下随注入能量β_b,注入功率P_bw,轴上安全因子q(0)和束速度的径向剖面分布参数S的不同而出现增稳、减稳及完全稳定的行为。适当选择S,在q(0)<0.924时,高能束能够稳定m/n=1/1模。 关键词：     

THE DECISIVE ROLE OF m= 1 AND 2 PERTURBATIONS IN DENSITY LIMIT DISRUPTIONS ON TEXTOR

The behavior of magnetohydrodynamic phenomena associated with disruptions of ohmically heated density limit discharges (q_a=3.9) in the TEXTOR tokamak has been investigated in detail. A minor disruption is demonstrated to be only due to an tn = 2 mode instability, possibly due to the magnetic reconnection of an m=2 island. When the m = 2 mode oscillations cease, the internal m = 1 kink mode instability is drastically enhanced at once, twisting the plasma core considerably. If the twisting is too strong, the twisted plasma core is inevitably displaced to the outside and brings cold plasma to the central region, leading to the energy quench at a major disruption.     

托卡马克理想磁流体不稳定性的统一描述 (I)

在与平衡磁面相联系的坐标系下，用剪切阿尔芬波近似给出了统一描述托卡马克等离子体理想磁流体线性运动的本征模方程。利用此方程，可以进一步给出大尺度扰动（扭曲模、低模数气球模、阿尔芬模）和小尺度扰动（高模数气球模、Mercier模）的本征模方程。本文详细讨论了小尺度扰动的本征模方程。     

高能飞行粒子对托卡马克中内扭曲模的稳定效应

用普遍能量原理分析了托卡马克中具有各向异性高能飞行粒子成分等离子体对m=1,n=1内扭曲模的稳定性,发现刚刚飞行的高能粒子对此模能提供稳定作用,并比较了高能俘获粒子和高能飞行粒子对内扭曲模稳定作用的异同及其物理图象。 关键词：     

高能俘获粒子对内扭曲模的稳定效应

用Greene,Johnson和Weimer的方法重新推导了各向异性托卡马克等离子体中的Grad-Shafranov平衡方程。从广义能量原理分析了各向异性高能粒子分量对托卡马克等离子体内扭曲模的稳定作用,并以能量慢化分布和压力随方位角变化基本呈方形的两种高能粒子分布为例仔细计算了此作用,找出了迴转点在强场一侧的高能俘获粒子对托卡马克等离子体内扭曲模的稳定窗口,并深入讨论了它与各物理参数的依赖关系。 关键词：     

Experimental identification of the kink instability as a poloidal flux amplification mechanism for coaxial gun spheromak formation

The magnetohydrodynamic kink instability is observed and identified experimentally as a poloidal flux amplification mechanism for coaxial gun spheromak formation. Plasmas in this experiment fall into three distinct regimes which depend on the peak gun current to magnetic flux ratio, with (I) low values resulting in a straight plasma column with helical magnetic field, (II) intermediate values leading to kinking of the column axis, and (III) high values leading immediately to a detached plasma. Onset of column kinking agrees quantitatively with the Kruskal-Shafranov limit, and the kink acts as a dynamo which converts toroidal to poloidal flux. Regime II clearly leads to both poloidal flux amplification and the development of a spheromak configuration.     

Intense geodesic acousticlike modes driven by suprathermal ions in a tokamak plasma

Intense axisymmetric oscillations driven by suprathermal ions injected in the direction counter to the toroidal plasma current are observed in the DIII-D tokamak. The modes appear at nearly half the ideal geodesic acoustic mode frequency, in plasmas with comparable electron and ion temperatures and elevated magnetic safety factor (q_{min}>or=2). Strong bursting and frequency chirping are observed, concomitant with large (10%-15%) drops in the neutron emission. Large electron density fluctuations (n[over ]_{e}/n_{e} approximately 1.5%) are observed with no detectable electron temperature fluctuations, confirming a dominant compressional contribution to the pressure perturbation as predicted by kinetic theory. The observed mode frequency is consistent with a recent theoretical prediction for the energetic-particle-driven geodesic acoustic mode.     

Observation of band renormalization effects in hole-doped high-Tc Superconductors

We report a systematic high-resolution angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy on high-T(c) superconductors Bi(2)Sr(2)Ca(n-1)Cu(n)O(2n+4) (n=1-3) to study the origin of many-body interactions responsible for superconductivity. For n=2 and 3, a sudden change in the energy dispersion, so called "kink", becomes pronounced on approaching (pi,0) in the superconducting state, while a kink appears only around the nodal direction in the normal state. For n=1, the kink shows no significant temperature dependence even across T(c). This could suggest that the coupling of electrons with Q=(pi,pi) magnetic mode is dominant in the superconducting state for multilayered cuprates, while the interactions at the normal state and that of single-layered cuprates have a different origin.     

Observation of Fishbone-Like Instabilities Excited by Energetic Electrons on the HL-2A Tokamak

Strong burst of an internal kink mode is observed on the HL-2A tokamak. Features of the fishbone-like mode are presented. The fishbone-like instabihties can be driven during electron cyclotron resonance heating （ECRH） and can be excited on the high field side （HFS） by ECRH. It is found for the first time that the modes also present themselves on the low field side （LFS） during ECRH. Experiments show that the energetic electrons with energy of 35-70 keV play a dominant role in the excitation mechanism, and the experimental results are also consistent with our calculation ones.     

Comment on relativistic ideal soliton-gas approximations

We comment on the validity of using relativistic, ideal, Boltzmann-kink-gas phenomenology involving “bare” kinks for interpretation of experiments and molecular dynamics simulations. An improved velocity distribution is obtained for sine-Gordon and ?-four kink gases which incorporates the kink renormalization found to be essential in obtaining the correct total kink density. We argue, however, that even with this improvement, current ideal gas phenomenologies can only be trusted at low temperatures compared to the kink rest energy, where the majority of kinks have low velocity in any case.     

等离子体压强对Line-tied扭曲不稳定性增长率和本征函数的影响

应用半解析方法,研究了直圆柱位形下等离子体压强P0分别为P0=0、P0=常数和P0=f(r)时Line-tied扭曲不稳定性的增长率和二维径向本征函数的演化规律。结果表明,P0=0和P0=常数时的轴向波数k的范围相同,但P0=常数时的增长率比P0=0时的小。P0=f(r)时的轴向波数k的范围和增长率则都比P0=0时的大,同时磁流体的速度变化也较大。因此,P0=f(r)更接近实际的物理模型(例如日冕的喷射问题)。     

Kink formation and motion in carbon nanotubes at high temperatures

We report that kink motion is a universal plastic deformation mode in all carbon nanotubes when being tensile loaded at high temperatures. The kink motion, observed inside a high-resolution transmission electron microscope, is reminiscent of dislocation motion in crystalline materials: namely, it dissociates and multiplies. The kinks are nucleated from vacancy creation and aggregation, and propagate in either a longitudinal or a spiral path along the nanotube walls. The kink motion is related to dislocation glide and climb influenced by external stress and high temperatures in carbon nanotubes.     

Reduced critical rotation for resistive-wall mode stabilization in a near-axisymmetric configuration

Recent DIII-D experiments with reduced neutral beam torque and minimum nonaxisymmetric perturbations of the magnetic field show a significant reduction of the toroidal plasma rotation required for the stabilization of the resistive-wall mode (RWM) below the threshold values observed in experiments that apply nonaxisymmetric magnetic fields to slow the plasma rotation. A toroidal rotation frequency of less than 10 krad/s at the q=2 surface (measured with charge exchange recombination spectroscopy using C VI) corresponding to 0.3% of the inverse of the toroidal Alfvén time is sufficient to sustain the plasma pressure above the ideal MHD no-wall stability limit. The low-rotation threshold is found to be consistent with predictions by a kinetic model of RWM damping.