Observation of electrostatic instability driven by cross-field current and ion heating

Applying an external voltage perpendicularly to a static magnetic field, the electrostatic instability ascribed to the cross-field current due to the E × B drift of electrons could be excited near the lower hybrid frequency, and the ion heating was observed.     

Feedback stabilization of drift cyclotron loss cone instability by modulated electron sources

It is shown that the drift cyclotron loss cone instability can be suppressed by modulating electron density within the plasma. With the feedback in +90° phase the critical density gradient needed for the onset of the drift cyclotron loss cone instability increases approximately linearly with the gain. Typically with the gain of −50Ω _i the critical density gradient can be pushed up by as much as two orders of magnitude and minimum mirror plasma radius can be brought down in the same proportion.     

Saturation of cyclotron maser instability driven by an electron loss-cone distribution

The resoinance diffusion of electrons in velocity space caused by the excited EM wave fields is considered to be the dominant saturation process of cyclotron maser instability that is driven by an electron loss-cone distribution. An upper-bound of the saturation level is derived analytically. Since the resulting saturation level is low the resonance diffusion is indeed responsible for the saturation of the cyclotron maser instability.     

Electron current drive by fusion-product-excited lower hybrid drift instability

We present first principles simulations of the direct collisionless coupling of the free energy of fusion-born ions into electron current in a magnetically confined fusion plasma. These simulations demonstrate, for the first time, a key building block of some "alpha channeling" scenarios for tokamak experiments. Spontaneously excited obliquely propagating waves in the lower hybrid frequency range undergo Landau damping on resonant electrons, drawing out an asymmetric tail in the electron parallel velocity distribution, which carries a current.     

The effect of plasma drift on the electromagnetic cyclotron instability

It is shown that the drift of plasma across a homogeneous magnetic field causes the generation of a wave electric field which, for waves propagating along the magnetic field in the whistler mode, is in the direction of the magnetic field. This leads to Landau damping of the wave field by the background electron distribution, simultaneously with amplification via the electromagnetic cyclotron instability. The drift velocity of the plasma for zero net growth of a whistler mode signal is calculated. It is suggested that such a process occurs in the equatorial region of the magnetosphere during a geomagnetic storm and accounts for the missing band of emissions at half the equatorial gyrofrequency.     

Ion heating by drift two stream instability in a quasi-neutral electron beam

In a quasi-neutral electron beam the drift two stream instability is observed. It is shown that the ion temperature perpendicular to a magnetic field depends strongly on the amplitude of the instability.     

Geodesic mode instability driven by the electron current in tokamak plasmas

Effect of the parallel electron current on Geodesic Acoustic Modes (GAM) in a tokamak is analyzed by kinetic theory taking into the account the ion Landau damping and diamagnetic drifts. It is shown that the electron current modeled by shifted Maxwell distribution may overcome the phase velocity threshold and ion Landau damping thus resulting in the GAM instability when the parallel electron current velocity is larger than the effective parallel GAM phase velocity Rqω. The instability occurs due to its cross term of the current with the ion diamagnetic drift. Possible applications to tokamak experiments are discussed.     

Electron current driven ion acoustic standing wave instability

By means of a positively biased grid an electron current driven instability is excited in a single ended Q-machine. The instability shows the behaviour of a half standing ion acoustic wave with nodes at the hot plate and the grid. For high grid biases an increased plasma temperature is found.     

Steady-state fully noninductive current driven by electron cyclotron waves in a magnetically confined plasma

A steady-state, fully noninductive plasma current has been sustained for the first time in a tokamak using electron cyclotron current drive only. In this discharge, 123 kA of current have been sustained for the entire gyrotron pulse duration of 2 s. Careful distribution across the plasma minor radius of the power deposited from three 0. 5-MW gyrotrons was essential for reaching steady-state conditions. With central current drive, up to 153 kA of current have been fully replaced transiently for 100 ms. The noninductive scenario is confirmed by the ability to recharge the Ohmic transformer. The dependence of the current drive efficiency on the minor radius is also demonstrated.     

Electron cyclotron instability

The paper presents a study of the dependence of initiation and development of instability on the cyclotron frequency of electrons in a homogeneous plasma with cold ions and electrons forming two beams which move in the direction of, and opposite to, that of a constant magnetic field. It is demonstrated that for ^{2 2} , the instability can already arise at _pe ² _ce ² , and a brief comparison with the experimental results is carried out.The authors take this opportunity to thank Dr. M. Seidl for his valuable comments and stimulating discussions on this paper.     

On the nonlinear theory of current instability of short-wave drift oscillations

The paper deals with the studies of current instability in the inhomogeneous plasma resulting in excitation of short-wave drift oscillations with a frequency near the low-hybrid resonance.It is shown that the saturation of such an instability is associated with the spectral pumping of oscillations into the short-wave region that occurs due to the modulation instability; and maximum amplitudes of the electrical fields of oscillations are determined. The effective frequency of electron collisions due to current instability is calculated. It is indicated that the diffusion model of the Parker-Sweet magnetic field reconnection modified taking into account the anomalous resistance mechanism studied here leads to the estimate of the magnetopause width being in satisfactory agreement with the experiment.     

Nonlinear evolution of the lower-hybrid drift instability in a current sheet

The lower-hybrid drift instability is simulated in an ion-scale current sheet using a fully kinetic approach with values of the ion to electron mass ratio up to m(i)/m(e)=1836. Although the instability is localized on the edge of the layer, the nonlinear development increases the electron flow velocity in the central region resulting in a strong bifurcation of the current density and significant anisotropic heating of the electrons. This dramatically enhances the collisionless tearing mode and may lead to the rapid onset of magnetic reconnection for current sheets near the critical scale.     

Internal kink instability during off-axis electron cyclotron current drive in the DIII-D tokamak

Experimental evidence is reported of an internal kink instability driven by a new mechanism: barely trapped suprathermal electrons produced by off-axis electron cyclotron heating on the DIII-D tokamak. It occurs in plasmas with an evolving safety factor profile q(r) when q(min) approaches 1. This instability is most active when ECCD is applied on the high field side of the flux surface. It has a bursting behavior with poloidal/toroidal mode number = m/n = 1/1. In positive magnetic shear plasmas, this mode becomes the fishbone instability. This observation can be qualitatively explained by the drift reversal of the barely trapped suprathermal electrons.     

Electrostatic instability driven by nonlinear forces

Summary The physical mechanism for the generation of an ELF electrostatic wave in the presence of a coherent electromagnetic ion cyclotron wave is presented. A high-frequency nonlinear force which arises as a result of the resonant interaction between electrons and modulated fields is found to drive the instability. The growth rate of this electrostatic instability is obtained and the results are applied to observations in the magnetospheric plasma.

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Riassunto Si presenta il meccanismo fisico per la produzione di un'onda elettrostatica ELF in presenza di un'onda ciclotronica elettromagnetica di ioni. Si trova che una forza non lineare ad alta frequenza che si ottiene come risultato dell'interazione risonante tra elettroni e campi modulati dirige l'instabilità. Si ottiene la velocità di crescita di questa instabilità elettrostatica e si applicano i risultati alle osservazioni nel plasma magneto-sferico.

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Резюме Описьівается физический механизм для генерации электростатической волньі в присутствии когерентной электромагнитной ионной циклотронной волньі. Обнаружено, что вьісокочастотная нелинейная сила, которая возникает в результате резонансного взаимодействия между электронами и модулированньіми полями, воэбуждает неустойчивость. Определяется скорость роста этой электростатической неустойчивости. Полученньіе результатьі применяются для анализа наблюдений магнитосферной плазмьі.

     

电子束驱动的回旋激射不稳定性

对弱相对论性电子束驱动的回旋激射(maser)不稳定性的一般理论作了详细讨论.对在获得增长率实用表达式过程中若干解析表达式的推导与细节做了仔细的补充讨论和说明，还增加了增长率的近似表达式，并由此得到了回旋激射不稳定性主要特征的解析分析以及与精确计算的比较，使整个理论有一个完整的描述.侧重解析讨论，也提供了部分一般性的数值计算结果. 关键词： 回旋激射不稳定性 弱相对论性电子束 增长率     

Analysis of the electron cyclotron maser instability

A single nonlinear equation which describes the temporal evolution of the field amplitude of the electron cyclotron maser instability is derived self-consistently. The results deduced from this nonlinear equation are found to agree well with those of particle simulation.     

Resistive drift instability and Rayleigh-Taylor instability in a dusty plasma

The resistive drift instability and the Rayleigh-Taylor instability are studied self-consistently in a magnetized inhomogeneous dusty plasma. The effect of grain charge fluctuations is taken into consideration. It is found that the presence of the dust grains in the plasma can significantly affect the resistive drift instability but less significantly the Rayleigh-Taylor instability. Further, the grain charge fluctuation has a tendency to stabilize both instabilities.     

Ion cyclotron production by a four-wave interaction with a helicon pump

Ion cyclotron waves at approximately 0.7 the ion gyrofrequency have been observed experimentally in the large volume helicon reactor WOMBAT. These waves are highly localized along the axis of the device where a 8 cm diameter, 2 m long. Ar II plasma column is produced. Spectral measurements reveal a four-wave interaction where energy is down-converted to the ion cyclotron mode from the helicon pump. The experimental results are explained in terms of a filamentation type instability.