Evidence of Neoclassical Toroidal Viscosity on the Neoclassical Tearing Modes in TCV tokamak

Abstract

The interplay between the plasma toroidal rotation and the onset of magnetohydrodynamics instabilities, such as the Neoclassical Tearing Modes (NTMs), is an important issue for tokamak performance. An interesting mechanism characterizing this interaction is the breaking of axisymmetry due to the NTM helical structure, which is the source of a magnetic viscous drag parallel to the toroidal field. This effect, known as Neoclassical Toroidal Viscosity (NTV) depends on magnetic island width, and is responsible of the nearly global slowing down of the toroidal velocity across the profile. In the TCV tokamak the spontaneous plasma toroidal rotation profile, observed even in absence of other external momentum sources [1], can be modified by nearly central electron cyclotron heating (ECH) with a slight poloidal asymmetry and current drive (ECCD) [1,2,3]. The evidence of NTV effect on the plasma toroidal velocity profile of TCV is apparent as a pronounced flattening at the onset of m/n=3/2 and 2/1 tearing instabilities in the neoclassical regime in TCV discharges (Ip~150 kA, ne_av~2 1019 m−3 Te~3 keV) with 1.5 MW EC ramp up/down phases. Comparison of the measured and calculated toroidal plasma velocity is performed using the NTV formulation [4,5] applicable in the collisionless regimes. The different aspects of the NTM onset associated both with the ECH-coECCD effect on the current profile and with NTV observed in several TCV discharges are discussed, in the frame of classical and neoclassical tearing modes theory applied to 3/2 and 2/1 modes.