Higher Order Collisionless Ballooning Mode in Tokamaks

Abstract

Kinetic stability analysis of general electromagnetic modes in tokamaks has revealed the existence of higher order ballooning mode which is not subject to second stabilization. The kinetic ballooning mode in the magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) second stability region is characterized by eigenfunctions in the ballooning space much broader than that of MHD modes. The ion temperature gradient (${\eta }_i$) provides the dominant destabilization mechanism.