Infernal instabilities in negative-triangularity plasmas with negative central shear

A systematic numerical investigation is carried out to understand magnetohydrodynamic stability of the ideal infernal-kink instability in tokamak plasmas with both negative triangularity (neg-D) shaping and negative central shear for the equilibrium safety factor profile. The latter is motivated by...

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Main Authors: X.M. Zhang, L. Li, Y.Q. Liu, Z.Y. Dong, J.W. Li, Y. Liang, F.C. Zhong
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: IOP Publishing 2025-01-01
Series:Nuclear Fusion
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Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1088/1741-4326/adac78
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author X.M. Zhang
L. Li
Y.Q. Liu
Z.Y. Dong
J.W. Li
Y. Liang
F.C. Zhong
author_facet X.M. Zhang
L. Li
Y.Q. Liu
Z.Y. Dong
J.W. Li
Y. Liang
F.C. Zhong
author_sort X.M. Zhang
collection DOAJ
description A systematic numerical investigation is carried out to understand magnetohydrodynamic stability of the ideal infernal-kink instability in tokamak plasmas with both negative triangularity (neg-D) shaping and negative central shear for the equilibrium safety factor profile. The latter is motivated by the desire to form the internal transport barrier in the neg-D configuration, which is known to have difficulty in forming the edge transport barrier. The infernal-kink mode is generally found to be more unstable in neg-D plasmas as compared to their positive D-shaped (pos-D) counterpart. This is mainly due to less favorable (or even unfavorable) average magnetic curvature near the radial location of the minimum safety factor ( ${q_{{\text{min}}}}$ ) as compared to the pos-D configuration. The larger Shafranov shift associated with the neg-D shape helps the mode stabilization but is not sufficient to overcome the destabilizing effect due to bad curvature. Strong poloidal mode coupling due to plasma shaping (toroidicity, elongation, triangularity, etc.) helps explain the slight shift with respect to that predicted by the analytic theory of the peak location of the computed mode growth versus ${q_{{\text{min}}}}$ .
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institution Kabale University
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spelling doaj-art-4c8e2ae89da14b26a07a9be69c78ffa42025-01-31T10:44:59ZengIOP PublishingNuclear Fusion0029-55152025-01-0165202606610.1088/1741-4326/adac78Infernal instabilities in negative-triangularity plasmas with negative central shearX.M. Zhang0L. Li1Y.Q. Liu2https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8192-8411Z.Y. Dong3J.W. Li4https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9216-105XY. Liang5https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9483-6911F.C. Zhong6https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4038-4040College of Science, Donghua University , Shanghai 201620, China; Member of Magnetic Confinement Fusion Research Centre , Ministry of Education, Shanghai 201620, ChinaCollege of Science, Donghua University , Shanghai 201620, China; Member of Magnetic Confinement Fusion Research Centre , Ministry of Education, Shanghai 201620, ChinaGeneral Atomics , PO Box 85608, San Diego, CA 92186-5608, United States of AmericaCollege of Science, Donghua University , Shanghai 201620, China; Member of Magnetic Confinement Fusion Research Centre , Ministry of Education, Shanghai 201620, ChinaCollege of Science, Donghua University , Shanghai 201620, China; Member of Magnetic Confinement Fusion Research Centre , Ministry of Education, Shanghai 201620, ChinaCollege of Science, Donghua University , Shanghai 201620, China; Member of Magnetic Confinement Fusion Research Centre , Ministry of Education, Shanghai 201620, China; Forschungszentrum Julich GmbH, Association EURATOM-FZ Jülich, Institut für Energieforschung—Plasmaphysik, Trilateral Euregio Cluster , D-52425 Jülich, GermanyCollege of Science, Donghua University , Shanghai 201620, China; Member of Magnetic Confinement Fusion Research Centre , Ministry of Education, Shanghai 201620, ChinaA systematic numerical investigation is carried out to understand magnetohydrodynamic stability of the ideal infernal-kink instability in tokamak plasmas with both negative triangularity (neg-D) shaping and negative central shear for the equilibrium safety factor profile. The latter is motivated by the desire to form the internal transport barrier in the neg-D configuration, which is known to have difficulty in forming the edge transport barrier. The infernal-kink mode is generally found to be more unstable in neg-D plasmas as compared to their positive D-shaped (pos-D) counterpart. This is mainly due to less favorable (or even unfavorable) average magnetic curvature near the radial location of the minimum safety factor ( ${q_{{\text{min}}}}$ ) as compared to the pos-D configuration. The larger Shafranov shift associated with the neg-D shape helps the mode stabilization but is not sufficient to overcome the destabilizing effect due to bad curvature. Strong poloidal mode coupling due to plasma shaping (toroidicity, elongation, triangularity, etc.) helps explain the slight shift with respect to that predicted by the analytic theory of the peak location of the computed mode growth versus ${q_{{\text{min}}}}$ .https://doi.org/10.1088/1741-4326/adac78plasma triangularityinfernal-kink instabilitynegative central shear
spellingShingle X.M. Zhang
L. Li
Y.Q. Liu
Z.Y. Dong
J.W. Li
Y. Liang
F.C. Zhong
Infernal instabilities in negative-triangularity plasmas with negative central shear
Nuclear Fusion
plasma triangularity
infernal-kink instability
negative central shear
title Infernal instabilities in negative-triangularity plasmas with negative central shear
title_full Infernal instabilities in negative-triangularity plasmas with negative central shear
title_fullStr Infernal instabilities in negative-triangularity plasmas with negative central shear
title_full_unstemmed Infernal instabilities in negative-triangularity plasmas with negative central shear
title_short Infernal instabilities in negative-triangularity plasmas with negative central shear
title_sort infernal instabilities in negative triangularity plasmas with negative central shear
topic plasma triangularity
infernal-kink instability
negative central shear
url https://doi.org/10.1088/1741-4326/adac78
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