Characteristics of magnetic island formation due to resistive interchange instability in helical plasma

Focusing attention on the magnetic island formation, we investigate the characteristics of the resistive interchange magnetohydrodynamics instabilities, which would limit a high beta operational regime in helical type fusion reactors. An introduction of a new index, i.e., the ratio of the magnetic fluctuation level to the radial displacement, enables us to make a systematic analysis on the magnetic island formation in the large helical device-like plasmas during the linear growth phase; (i) the interchange instability with the second largest growth rate makes the magnetic island larger than that with the largest growth rate when the amplitude of the radial displacement in both cases is almost the same as each other; (ii) applied to a typical tearing instability, the index is smaller than that for the interchange instability with the second largest growth rate. (C) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC.