Low-n magnetohydrodynamic edge instabilities in quiescent H-mode plasmas with a safety-factor plateau

Abstract

Low-n magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) modes in the quiescent high confinement mode (H-mode) pedestal are investigated in this paper. Here, n is the toroidal mode number. The low collisionality regime is considered, so that a safety-factor plateau arises in the pedestal region because of the strong bootstrap current. The JET-like (Joint European Torus) equilibria of quiescent H-mode discharges are generated numerically using the VMEC code. The stability of this type of equilibria is analysed using the AEGIS code, with subsonic rotation effects taken into account. The current investigation extends the previous studies of n = 1 modes to n = 2 and 3 modes. The numerical results show that the MHD instabilities in this type of equilibria have characteristic features of the infernal mode. We find that this type of mode tends to prevail when the safety-factor value in the shear-free region is slightly larger than an integer. In this case the frequencies (ωn) of modes with toroidal mode number n roughly follow the rule ωn ∼ −nΩp, where Ωp is the local rotation frequency where the infernal harmonic prevails. Since the infernal mode tends to develop near the pedestal top, where pressure driving is strong but magnetic shear stabilization is weak, this local rotation frequency tends to be close to the pedestal top value. These typical mode features bear close resemblance to the edge harmonic oscillations (or outer modes) at the quiescent H-mode discharges observed experimentally.