Finite-Larmor-radius stabilization of the m 2 instability in the ISAR T1-B high-beta stellarator
Abstract
Current knowledge concerning finite-Larmor-radius (FLR) stabilization for rotating theta pinches is summarized, and it is shown how experimental parameters can be changed in order to determine stability limits. Results are reported for experiments conducted over a wide range of plasma parameters in a toroidal high-beta stellarator using deuterium or hydrogen as the filling gas and capacitor bank energy of 0.5 or 1.5 MJ. The experimentally determined stability limit for the m 2 mode is discussed, and a semiempirical formula is derived for predicting the limit of FLR stabilization in future experiments. It is concluded that FLR stabilization can be tested in present-day toroidal high-beta stellarators essentially by increasing the filling pressure above the value employed in the usual hot theta-pinch regime.
- Publication:
-
Nuclear Fusion
- Pub Date:
- February 1977
- Bibcode:
- 1977NucFu..17....3N
- Keywords:
-
- Gyrostabilizers;
- Larmor Precession;
- Magnetohydrodynamic Stability;
- Plasma Control;
- Stellarators;
- Theta Pinch;
- Toroidal Plasmas;
- Boundary Value Problems;
- Ion Cyclotron Radiation;
- Ion Temperature;
- Nuclear Reactors;
- Plasma Lifetime;
- Plasma Radiation;
- Vlasov Equations;
- Plasma Physics