Resistive X-point modes in tokamak boundary plasmas

Journal Article · Thu Jun 01 00:00:00 EDT 2000 · Physics of Plasmas

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.874125· OSTI ID:20216537

Myra, J R ^[1]; D'Ippolito, D A ^[1]; Xu, X Q ^[2]; Cohen, R H ^[2]

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1. Lodestar Research Corporation, 2400 Central Avenue, Boulder, Colorado 80301 (United States)
2. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California 94550 (United States)

It is shown that the boundary (edge and scrape-off-layer) plasma in a typical low (L) mode diverted tokamak discharge is unstable to a new class of modes called resistive X-point (RX) modes. The RX mode is a type of resistive ballooning mode that exploits a synergism between resistivity and the magnetic geometry of the X-point region. The RX modes are shown to give robust instabilities at moderate mode numbers, and therefore are expected to be the dominant contributors to turbulent diffusion in the boundary plasma of a diverted tokamak. (c) 2000 American Institute of Physics.

• OSTI ID: 20216537
• Journal Information: Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 7, Issue 6; Other Information: PBD: Jun 2000; ISSN 1070-664X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
TOKAMAK DEVICES
BOUNDARY LAYERS
BALLOONING INSTABILITY
MAGNETIC CONFINEMENT
TURBULENCE
CHARGED-PARTICLE TRANSPORT
THEORETICAL DATA