B C Stratton et al 2002 Plasma Phys. Control. Fusion 44 1127 doi:10.1088/0741-3335/44/7/305
B C Stratton1, J A Breslau1, R V Budny1, S C Jardin1, W Park1, H R Strauss2, L E Zakharov1, B Alper3, V Drozdov3, N C Hawkes3, S Reyes-Cortes4 and contributors to the EFDA-JET Workprogramme
Show affiliationsInjection of lower hybrid heating and current drive into the current ramp-up phase of JET discharges can produce extremely reversed q-profiles characterized by a core region of very small or zero current density (within motional Stark effect diagnostic measurement errors) and qmin>1. Te-profiles show sawtooth-like collapses and the presence of an internal transport barrier. Accurate equilibrium reconstructions of these discharges are obtained using the ESC code, which was recently extended to allow equilibrium reconstructions in which a free boundary solver determines the plasma boundary and a fixed boundary solver provides the magnetic geometry and current density profile. The core current density does not appear to go negative, although current diffusion calculations indicate that sufficient non-inductive current drive to cause this is present. This is explained by nonlinear resistive MHD simulations in toroidal geometry which predict that these discharges undergo n = 0 reconnection events (axisymmetric sawteeth) that redistribute the current to hold the core current density near zero.
52.50.Sw Plasma heating by microwaves; ECR, LH, collisional heating
52.55.Fa Tokamaks, spherical tokamaks
52.40.Hf Plasma-material interactions; boundary layer effects
Issue 7 (July 2002)
Received 4 December 2001, in final form 15 April 2002
Published 13 June 2002
B C Stratton et al 2002 Plasma Phys. Control. Fusion 44 1127
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