Excitation of the centrifugally driven interchange instability in a plasma confined by a magnetic dipole
- Department of Applied Physics and Applied Mathematics, Columbia University, New York, New York 10027 (United States)
The centrifugally driven electrostatic interchange instability is excited for the first time in a laboratory magnetoplasma. The plasma is confined by a dipole magnetic field, and the instability is excited when an equatorial mesh is biased to induce a radial current that creates rapid axisymmetric plasma rotation. The observed instabilities appear quasicoherent in the lab frame of reference; they have global radial mode structures and low azimuthal mode numbers, and they are modified by the presence of energetic, magnetically confined electrons. The mode structure is measured using a multiprobe correlation technique as well as a novel 96-point polar imaging diagnostic which measures particle flux along field lines that map to the pole. Interchange instabilities caused by hot electron pressure are simultaneously observed at the hot electron drift frequency. Adjusting the hot electron fraction {alpha} modifies the stability as well as the structures of the centrifugally driven modes. In the presence of larger fractions of energetic electrons, m=1 is observed to be the dominant mode. For faster rotating plasmas containing fewer energetic electrons, m=2 dominates. Results from a self-consistent nonlinear simulation reproduce the measured mode structures in both regimes. The low azimuthal mode numbers seen in the experiment and simulation can also be interpreted with a local, linear dispersion relation of the electrostatic interchange instability. Drift resonant hot electrons give the instability a real frequency, inducing stabilizing ion polarization currents that preferentially suppress high-m modes.
- OSTI ID:
- 20736563
- Journal Information:
- Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 12, Issue 5; Other Information: DOI: 10.1063/1.1888685; (c) 2005 American Institute of Physics; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 1070-664X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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