Effects of plasma radiation on the nonlinear evolution of neo-classical tearing modes in tokamak plasmas

Abstract

Abstract The effects of plasma radiation on the nonlinear evolution of neo-classical tearing modes are investigated based on a set of reduced magnetohydrodynamic equations. It is found that the radiation can reduce the pressure near the rational surface. During the nonlinear evolution, the magnitude of perturbed bootstrap current is drastically enhanced in the presence of the radiation. Besides, the radiation can increase the growth rate of the magnetic islands by diminishing the pressure, such that the magnetic islands do not saturate compared with that without radiation. On the other hand, with the increase of the ratio of parallel to perpendicular transport coefficient χ ∥ / χ ⊥ , the reduction of pressure can further increase the growth rate of magnetic islands in the presence of plasma radiation. Finally, the mechanisms of the destabilizing effects driven by the radiation are discussed in detail as well.