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Kinetic approach to a pressure-gradient-driven tokamak resistive instability in the banana regime

Journal Article · · Phys. Fluids; (United States)
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.864929· OSTI ID:5597351

A new resistive, low-frequency (..omega..<<..omega../sub b/a approx...nu../sub a/, where ..omega.. is the frequency of the mode and ..omega../sub b/a and ..nu../sub a/ are the bounce frequency and collision frequency for species a) instability is found in a tokamak geometry. The mode is driven unstable by the parallel viscous (bootstrap) current induced by the radial pressure gradient. It has a growth rate ..gamma..approx.(..omega../sup 2//sub asteriske/..nu../sub i/)/sup 1//sup ///sup 3/ for ..nu../sub i/>>..omega../sub asteriske/, where ..omega../sub asteriske/ is the electron diamagnetic drift frequency and ..nu../sub i/ is the ion--ion collision frequency. The frequency dependence of the parallel viscosity is also derived and utilized to show that drift wave branches of these modes are stable, but that this new mode remains unstable when the diamagnetic drift effects are included.

Research Organization:
Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37831
DOE Contract Number:
AC05-84OR21400
OSTI ID:
5597351
Journal Information:
Phys. Fluids; (United States), Journal Name: Phys. Fluids; (United States) Vol. 28:6; ISSN PFLDA
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English