Instabilities in a Confined Plasma

A.B Mikhailovskii

• Editorial: CRC Press
• Año: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781351438162
• Edición: 1
• Categoría: Scienze fisiche
• Categoría: Fisica

Instabilities in a Confined Plasma is entirely devoted to a theoretical exposition of the subject of plasma instabilities in confined systems. The book is an important contribution to the study of plasma instabilities, not only in fusion devices such as the Tokamak but also in astrophysical phenomena. It covers toroidal confinement systems, internal MHD modes, small-scale MHD instabilities, MHD internal kink modes, MHD modes in collisionless and neoclassical regimes, drift-MHD modes, external kink modes, and Alfven eigenmodes.

PART 1

EQUILIBRIUM OF A PLASMA IN TOROIDAL CONFINEMENT SYSTEMS

Chapter 1

General Results of Equilibrium Theory

The goal of the present chapter is (1) to give the general results of the equilibrium theory of a plasma in toroidal confinement systems necessary for constructing the stability theory and (2) to elucidate these results using an example of circular-cylinder geometry.

In this chapter we use the single-fluid MHD for the description of plasma equilibrium. In addition, we restrict ourselves to the case of a plasma with isotropic pressure. In these approximations the starting equilibrium equations are of the simplest form. They are given in section 1.1. The above approach to the equilibrium problem allows one to consider the MHD instabilities in an isotropic plasma—both ideal and resistive. It is used up to chapter 16 where the kinetic effects and plasma pressure anisotropy are taken into account.

In section 1.2 we consider the circular-cylinder equilibrium. There we introduce, in particu...