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Title: Bifurcation of resistive wall mode dynamics predicted by magnetohydrodynamic-kinetic hybrid theory

Journal Article · · Physics of Plasmas
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4931076· OSTI ID:22490118
; ; ;  [1];  [2]
  1. Southwestern Institute of Physics, P.O.Box 432, Chengdu 610041 (China)
  2. Culham Centre for Fusion Energy, Culham Science Centre, Abingdon OX14 3DB (United Kingdom)

The magnetohydrodynamic-kinetic hybrid theory has been extensively and successfully applied for interpreting experimental observations of macroscopic, low frequency instabilities, such as the resistive wall mode, in fusion plasmas. In this work, it is discovered that an analytic version of the hybrid formulation predicts a bifurcation of the mode dynamics while varying certain physical parameters of the plasma, such as the thermal particle collisionality or the ratio of the thermal ion to electron temperatures. This bifurcation can robustly occur under reasonably large parameter spaces as well as with different assumptions, for instance, on the particle collision model. Qualitatively similar bifurcation features are also observed in full toroidal computations presented in this work, based on a non-perturbative hybrid formulation.

OSTI ID:
22490118
Journal Information:
Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 22, Issue 9; Other Information: (c) 2015 AIP Publishing LLC; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 1070-664X
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English