Transition and Interaction of Low-Frequency Magnetohydrodynamic Modes during Neutral Beam Injection Heating on HL-2A

Abstract

The strong fishbone mode (FB) and long-lived mode (LLM) have been observed during neutral beam injection (NBI) on the HL-2A tokamak. The FB and LLM can transit between each other. The LLM is identified as an internal kink mode (IKM) with the mode structure obtained using a newly developed electron cyclotron emission radiometer imaging (ECEI) system. The frequency of the LLM (fLLM) is higher than the toroidal rotation frequency (ft) near the q = 1 surface (r ∼ 10 cm). Experimental results show that the LLM is likely to be excited at a higher line-averaged electron density (\(\bar{n}_{\text{e}}\)) than that of the FB when the NBI power is fixed. It is found that the FB and its harmonic as seed magnetic islands can trigger tearing modes (TMs). The mode numbers for the low-frequency and high-frequency TMs are m/n = 2/1 and 3/2, respectively. By further investigation, it is found that there is an m/n = 1/1 IKM coexisting at the same time and with the same frequency as the m/n = 2/1 TM, and the m = 1 mode structure of the IKM in the radial cross section is obtained by the Bayesian tomography method utilizing soft X-ray arrays. The nonlinear coupling conditions are satisfied among the two TMs and IKM.