Robert Wilcox

TL;DR: Two-fluid magnetohydrodynamic simulations find that, although changes to the magnetic field topology are small, there is a significant 3D variation of the density gradient within the flux surfaces that is extended along field lines.

Abstract: This paper presents the first fully 3-dimensional (3D) equilibrium reconstruction of a helical core in a tokamak device. Using a new parallel implementation of the Variational Moments Equilibrium Code (PARVMEC) coupled to V3FIT, 3D reconstructions can be performed at resolutions necessary to produce helical states in nominally axisymmetric tokamak equilibria. In a flux pumping experiment performed on DIII-D, an external n = 1 field was applied while a 3/2 neoclassical tearing mode was suppressed using ECCD. The externally applied field was rotated past a set of fixed diagnostics at a 20 Hz frequency. The modulation, observed to be strongest in the core SXR and MSE channels, indicates a localized rotating 3D structure locked in phase with the applied field. Signals from multiple time slices are converted to a virtual rotation of modeled diagnostics adding 3D signal information. Starting from an axisymmetric equilibrium reconstruction solution, the reconstructed broader current profile flattens the q-profile, resulting in an m = 1, n = 1 perturbation of the magnetic axis that is ∼50× larger than the applied n = 1 deformation of the edge. Error propagation confirms that the displacement of the axis is much larger than the uncertainty in the axis position validating the helical equilibrium.