Results from MAST provide a first test of neoclassical tearing mode physics in the spherical tokamak (ST). The mode accounts for the main performance limit in conventional tokamaks. Its behavior in the ST is remarkably well described by existing theoretical models, although it is more readily seeded by sawtooth events in these scenarios. Modeling c…
The islands from tearing modes driven unstable and sustained by the helically perturbed neoclassical bootstrap current often provide the practical limit to long-pulse, high confinement tokamak operation. The destabilization of such ‘‘metastable’’ plasmas depends on a ‘‘seed’’ island exceeding a threshold. A database from similar reg…
