P. Helander L.-G. Eriksson R. J. Akers C. Byrom C.G. Gimblett M. R. Tournianski
Spontaneous acceleration of ions to suprathermal energies is observed during magnetic reconnection in the Mega-Ampere Spherical Tokamak (MAST). A high-energy tail is observed in the iondistribution function following each internal reconnection event in Ohmic discharges. This phenomenon is explained in terms of runaway ion acceleration in the electr…
PublishedT. Fülöp P. Helander Peter J. Catto
Neutral atoms in the tokamak edge affect the electric field and plasma flow through charge exchange. Here, it is shown that these effects depend sensitively on the poloidal location of the atoms. It is found that the radial electric field and toroidal flow velocity in a collisional edge plasma are largest if the atoms are concentrated on the inboar…
PublishedR. J. Buttery O. Sauter R. Akers M. Gryaznevich R. Martin C. D. Warrick H. R. Wilson The Mast Team
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…
PublishedR. J. Akers G. F. Counsell A. Sykes L. C. Appel E. R. Arends C. Byrom P. G. Carolan N. J. Conway G. Cunningham A. Dnestrovskij Yu.N. Dnestrovskij A. R. Field S. J. Fielding M. Gryaznevich P. Helander A. Kirk S. Korsholm R. Martin H. Meye
H -mode plasmas have been achieved on the MAST spherical tokamak at input power considerably higher than predicted by conventional threshold scalings. Following L - H transition, a clear improvement in energy confinement is obtained, exceeding recent international scalings even at densities approaching the Greenwald density limit. Transition is acc…
PublishedCanh N. Nguyen Glenn Bateman Arnold H. Kritz Robert Akers Calum Byrom et al.
Integrated predictive modeling simulations are carried out using the BALDUR transport code [Singer et al. , Comput. Phys. Commun. 49 , 275 (1982)] for high confinement mode (H-mode) and low confinement mode (L-mode) discharges in the Mega-Amp Spherical Tokamak (MAST) [Sykes et al. , Phys. Plasmas 8 , 2101 (2001)]. Simulation results, obtained using…
PublishedR. J. Akers J. W. Ahn L. C. Appel E. R. Arends K. B. Axon et al.
Spontaneous transitions from the low ‘‘L-mode’’ to high ‘‘H-mode’’ of tokamak plasma confinement, first observed during neutral beam heating experiments on ASDEX, are now routinely achieved in many tokamak experiments. The H-mode regime is attractive as it offers the possibility of enhanced confinement, and thus a route towards a mo…
PublishedT. Edlington R. Martin T. Pinfold
The mega-ampere spherical tokamak (MAST) experiment is a new, large, low aspect ratio device operating its first experimental physics campaign. Designed to study a wide variety of plasma shapes with up to 2 MA of plasma current with an aspect ratio down to 1.3, the poloidal field (PF) coils used for plasma formation, equilibrium and shaping are ins…
PublishedA. Sykes J.-W. Ahn R. Akers E. Arends P. G. Carolan et al.
First physics results are presented from MAST (Mega-Amp Spherical Tokamak), one of the new generation of purpose built spherical tokamaks (STs) now commencing operation. Some of these results demonstrate, for the first time, the novel effects of low aspect ratio, for example, the enhancement of resistivity due to neo-classical effects. H-mode is ac…
PublishedR. A. Cairns C. N. Lashmore-Davies
Electron Bernstein waves are analyzed as possible candidates for heating spherical tokamaks. An inhomogeneous plane slab model of the plasma with a sheared magnetic field is used to calculate the linear conversion of the ordinary mode (O-mode) to the extraordinary mode (X-mode). A formula for the fraction of the incident O-mode energy which is conv…
Published