Island dynamics in the large-helical-device plasmas

Phys Rev Lett. 2002 Feb 4;88(5):055005. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.88.055005. Epub 2002 Jan 22.

Abstract

In the Large Helical Device plasma discharges, the size of an externally imposed island with mode number ( n/m = 1/1) decreases substantially when the plasma is collisionless ( nu(*)< approximately 1) and the beta is finite ( > approximately 0.1%) at the island location. For the collisional plasmas with finite beta, on the other hand, the size of the island increases. However, there is a threshold in terms of the vacuum island size below which the island enlargement is not seen.