[Table of Contents]

Plasma and Fusion Research

Volume 8, 2403040 (2013)

Regular Articles

Gyrokinetic Simulations of Short-Wavelength ITG Instability in the Presence of a Static Magnetic Island
Paul P. HILSCHER, Kenji IMADERA, Jiquan LI and Yasuaki KISHIMOTO
Graduate School of Energy Science, Kyoto University, Gokasho, Uji, Kyoto 611-0011, Japan
(Received 23 November 2012 / Accepted 18 February 2013 / Published 19 June 2013)

Abstract

The ion-temperature-gradient (ITG) mode instability in sheared slab geometry in the presence of a mesoscale magnetic island is investigated with a focus on the short-wavelength regime (kyρi > 1). We found that a static magnetic island causes radial and poloidal modes to couple and therefore plays a stabilizing role by allowing energy transfer from unstable modes to stable modes. However, for large island widths, the short-wavelength ITG mode becomes strongly destabilized and tends to dominate over the standard ITG mode (kyρi ≅ 0.5). A reduced model is proposed in this paper to understand this destabilization mechanism.

Keywords

gyrokinetics, ITG instability, magnetic island, numerical simulation, microturbulence

DOI: 10.1585/pfr.8.2403040

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This paper may be cited as follows:

Paul P. HILSCHER, Kenji IMADERA, Jiquan LI and Yasuaki KISHIMOTO, Plasma Fusion Res. 8, 2403040 (2013).