Jong-Kyu Park

A nominally axisymmetric plasma configuration, such as a tokamak or a spherical torus, is highly sensitive to nonaxisymmetric magnetic perturbations due to currents outside of the plasma. The high sensitivity means that the primary interest is in the response of the plasma to very small perturbations, i.e., ∣b⃗∕B⃗∣≈10−2 to 10−4, which can be calculated using the theory of perturbed equilibria. The ideal perturbed equilibrium code (IPEC) is described and applied to the study of the plasma respons

The sensitivity of tokamak plasmas to very small deviations from the axisymmetry of the magnetic field |deltaB/B| approximately 10{-4} is well known. What was not understood until very recently is the importance of the perturbation to the plasma equilibrium in assessing the effects of externally produced asymmetries in the magnetic field, even far from a stability limit. DIII-D and NSTX experiments find that when the deleterious effects of asymmetries are mitigated, the external asymmetric field

Small nonaxisymmetric perturbations of the magnetic field can greatly change the performance of tokamaks through nonambipolar transport. A number of theories have been developed, but the predictions were not consistent with experimental observations in tokamaks. This Letter provides a resolution, with a generalized analytic treatment of the nonambipolar transport. It is shown that the discrepancy between theory and experiment can be greatly reduced by two effects: (1) the small fraction of trapp

Tokamaks are sensitive to deviations from axisymmetry as small as δB/B0∼10−4. These nonaxisymmetric perturbations greatly modify plasma confinement and performance by either destroying magnetic surfaces with subsequent locking or deforming magnetic surfaces with associated nonambipolar transport. The Ideal Perturbed Equilibrium Code (IPEC) calculates ideal perturbed equilibria and provides important basis for understanding the sensitivity of tokamak plasmas to perturbations. IPEC calculations in

A new method for correcting magnetic field errors in the ITER tokamak is developed using the Ideal Perturbed Equilibrium Code. The dominant external magnetic field for driving islands is shown to be localized to the outboard midplane for three ITER equilibria that represent the projected range of operational scenarios. The coupling matrices between the poloidal harmonics of the external magnetic perturbations and the resonant fields on the rational surfaces that drive islands are combined for di

Toroidal torque is one of the most important consequences of non-axisymmetric fields in tokamaks. The well-known neoclassical toroidal viscosity (NTV) is due to the second-order toroidal force from anisotropic pressure tensor in the presence of these asymmetries. This work shows that the first-order toroidal force originating from the same anisotropic pressure tensor, despite having no flux surface average, can significantly modify the local perturbed force balance and thus must be included in p

Error field correction results in DIII-D plasmas are presented in various configurations. In both left-handed and right-handed plasma configurations, where the intrinsic error fields become different due to the opposite helical twist (handedness) of the magnetic field, the optimal error correction currents and the toroidal phases of internal(I)-coils are empirically established. Applications of the Ideal Perturbed Equilibrium Code to these results demonstrate that the field component to be minim

One of the important rotational resonances in nonaxisymmetric neoclassical transport has been experimentally validated in the KSTAR tokamak by applying highly nonresonant n=1 magnetic perturbations to rapidly rotating plasmas. These so-called bounce-harmonic resonances are expected to occur in the presence of magnetic braking perturbations when the toroidal rotation is fast enough to resonate with periodic parallel motions of trapped particles. The predicted and observed resonant peak along with

The imposition of a nonaxisymmetric magnetic perturbation on a rotating tokamak plasma requires energy and toroidal torque. Fundamental electrodynamics implies that the torque is essentially limited and must be consistent with the external response of a plasma equilibrium f⃗=j⃗×B⃗. Here magnetic measurements on National Spherical Torus Experiment device are used to derive the energy and the torque, and these empirical evaluations are compared with theoretical calculations based on perturbed scal

It is shown that when tokamaks are perturbed, the kinetic energy principle is closely related to the neoclassical toroidal torque by the action invariance of particles. Especially when tokamaks are perturbed from scalar pressure equilibria, the imaginary part of the potential energy in the kinetic energy principle is equivalent to the toroidal torque by the neoclassical toroidal viscosity. A unified description therefore should be made for both physics. It is also shown in this case that the pot

It was found that error field threshold decreases for high β in NSTX, although the density correlation in conventional threshold scaling implies the threshold would increase since higher β plasmas in our study have higher plasma density. This greater sensitivity to error field in higher β plasmas is due to error field amplification by plasmas. When the effect of amplification is included with ideal plasma response calculations, the conventional density correlation can be restored and threshold s

The use of magnetic coordinates is ubiquitous in toroidal plasma physics but the distortion in Fourier spectra produced by these coordinates is not well known. A spatial symmetry of the field is not always represented by a symmetry in the Fourier spectrum when magnetic coordinates are used because of the distortion of the toroidal angle. The practical importance of spectral distortion is illustrated with a tokamak example.