Experimental observation of microtearing modes in a toroidal fusion plasma.

Experimental evidences of short wavelength electromagnetic modes are found in the reversed-field-pinch configuration device RFX-mod by means of in-vessel magnetic probes. The modes are revealed during the helical states of the plasma. Their amplitude is well correlated to the electron temperature gradient strength in the core. On the basis of linear gyrokinetic calculations we interpret these instabilities as microtearing modes.

Effects of three-dimensional electromagnetic structures on resistive-wall-mode stability of reversed field pinches.

In this Letter, the linear stability of the resistive wall modes (RWMs) in toroidal geometry for a reversed field pinch (RFP) plasma is studied. Three computational models are used: the cylindrical code ETAW, the toroidal MHD code MARS-F, and the CarMa code, able to take fully into account the effects of a three-dimensional conducting structure which mimics the real shell geometry of a reversed field pinch experimental device. The computed mode growth rates generally agree with experimental data. The toroidal effects and the three-dimensional features of the shell, like gaps, allow a novel interpretation of the RWM spectrum in RFP's and remove its degeneracy. This shows the importance of making accurate modeling of conductors for the RWM predictions also in future devices such as ITER.

Active-feedback control of the magnetic boundary for magnetohydrodynamic stabilization of a fusion plasma.

Stable operation with control on magnetohydrodynamic modes has been obtained in the modified reversed field experiment employing a set of 192 feedback controlled saddle coils. Improvements of plasma temperature, confinement (twofold), and pulse length (threefold) and, as a consequence of the magnetic fluctuation reduction, strong mitigation of plasma-wall interaction and mode locking are reported.

Feedback stabilization of multiple resistive wall modes.

Active feedback stabilization of multiple independent resistive wall modes is experimentally demonstrated in a reversed-field pinch plasma. A reproducible simultaneous suppression of several nonresonant resistive wall modes is achieved. Coupling of different modes due to the limited number of the feedback coils is observed in agreement with theory. The feedback stabilization of nonresonant RWMs also has an effect on tearing modes that are resonant in the central plasma, leading to a significant prolongation of the discharge pulse.

Chaos healing by separatrix disappearance and quasisingle helicity states of the reversed field pinch.

The resilience to chaotic perturbations of one-parameter one-degree-of-freedom Hamiltonian dynamics is shown to increase when its corresponding separatrix vanishes due to a saddle-node bifurcation. This is first highlighted for the magnetic chaos related to quasisingle helicity (QSH) states of the reversed field pinch. It provides a rationale for the confinement improvement of helical structures experimentally found for QSH plasmas; such a feature would not be expected from the classical resonance overlap picture as the separatrix disappearance occurs when the amplitude of the dominant mode increases.