Single-fluid stability of stationary plasma equilibria with velocity shear and magnetic shear
- Department of Earth and Planetary Science, University of Tokyo, Tokyo 113-0033 (Japan)
By using incompressible single-fluid equations with a generalized Ohm's law neglecting the electron inertia, a linear eigenmode equation for a magnetic field perturbation is derived for stationary equilibria in a slab geometry with velocity and magnetic shears. The general eigenmode equation contains a fourth-order derivative of the perturbation in the highest order and contains Alfven and whistler mode components for a homogeneous plasma. The ratio of the characteristic ion inertia length to the characteristic inhomogeneity scale length is chosen as a small parameter for expansion. Neglecting whistler mode in the lowest order, the eigenmode equation becomes a second-order differential equation similar to the ideal magnetohydrodynamic eigenmode equation except for the fact that the unperturbed perpendicular velocity contains both electric and ion diamagnetic drifts. A sufficient condition for stability against the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability driven by shear in the ion diamagnetic drift velocity is derived and then applied to tokamaks.
- OSTI ID:
- 21272702
- Journal Information:
- Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 16, Issue 10; Other Information: DOI: 10.1063/1.3247873; (c) 2009 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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