Abstract
It is hypothesized that sawtooth oscillations are the result of a cyclic process in which the plasma core is resistively heated until the safety factor drops below unity, causing the m = 1 tearing mode to become unstable, to grow with an accelerating growth rate, and ultimately to flatten the electron temperature and safety factor profiles. A model based on this hypothesis compares favorably with experimental data from ORMAK in explaining (1) the rate at which a sawtooth rises, (2) the radial dependence of the precursor and main sawtooth oscillation amplitudes, (3) the accelerating growth of the m = 1 precursor oscillations, and (4) the repetition time of the sawteeth.
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