Magnetic-island-induced ion temperature gradient mode: Landau damping, equilibrium magnetic shear and pressure flattening effects

Abstract

Characteristics of the magnetic-island-induced ion temperature gradient (MITG) mode are studied through gyrofluid simulations in the slab geometry, focusing on the effects of Landau damping, equilibrium magnetic shear (EMS), and pressure flattening. It is shown that the magnetic island may enhance the Landau damping of the system by inducing the radial magnetic field. Moreover, the radial eigenmode numbers of most MITG poloidal harmonics are increased by the magnetic island so that the MITG mode is destabilized in the low EMS regime. In addition, the pressure profile flattening effect inside a magnetic island hardly affects the growth of the whole MITG mode, while it has different local effects near the O-point and the X-point regions. In comparison with the non-zero-order perturbations, only the quasi-linear flattening effect due to the zonal pressure is the effective component to impact the growth rate of the mode.