The q-profile effect on high-order harmonic q = 1 tearing mode generation during sawtooth crashes

Abstract

The effect of q-profiles on the excitation of high-order harmonic q=1 tearing modes during sawtooth crashes is investigated by a collisionless fluid model with the electron inertia term in Ohm’s law. It is found that for a flat q-profile in the core region, the high-order harmonics, such as m/n=2/2 and/or m/n=3/3 modes, comparable to or stronger than the m/n=1/1 component, can be excited during tokamak sawteeth. The stronger the magnetic shear on the q=1 surface is, the more unstable the higher-m modes are. For smoothly monotonously increased q-profiles, a lower q value on the plasma edge tends to easily excite higher-m harmonics at the same level as the m = 1 mode simultaneously. The spatial characteristics of the eigenmodes in the cases with the typical q-profiles are also discussed. In addition, the basic feature of the magnetic island structures in the nonlinear evolution is numerically obtained, which is consistent qualitatively with the experimentally reconstructed phenomenon.