Effect of local heating on the m=2 tearing mode in a tokamak

Abstract

The effect of electron temperature perturbation induced by local heating on the tearing mode activity is investigated by simulations based on the reduced set of resistive MHD equations, with the transport equation of electron temperature. The effect of poloidal plasma rotation is also considered in the simulations. It is shown that the local heating can suppress the m=2 tearing mode instability when the O point of the rotating magnetic island is effectively heated. While perpendicular thermal conduction imposes a lower limit on the degree of localization of the achievable heating, the ratio of parallel to perpendicular conduction is shown to determine the heating power necessary for complete stabilization of the tearing mode