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Title: Peeling-off of the external kink modes at tokamak plasma edge

Journal Article · · Physics of Plasmas
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4894105· OSTI ID:22303592
 [1];  [2]
  1. Institute for Fusion Studies, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712 (United States)
  2. Graduate School of Engineering, Tottori University, Tottori 680-8552 (Japan)

It is pointed out that there is a current jump between the edge plasma inside the last closed flux surface and the scrape-off layer and that the current jump can lead the external kink modes to convert to the tearing modes, due to the current interchange effects [L. J. Zheng and M. Furukawa, Phys. Plasmas 17, 052508 (2010)]. The magnetic reconnection in the presence of tearing modes subsequently causes the tokamak edge plasma to be peeled off to link to the divertors. In particular, the peeling or peeling-ballooning modes can become the “peeling-off” modes in this sense. This phenomenon indicates that the tokamak edge confinement can be worse than the expectation based on the conventional kink mode picture.

OSTI ID:
22303592
Journal Information:
Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 21, Issue 8; Other Information: (c) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 1070-664X
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English