Error field amplification and rotation damping in tokamak plasmas

Toroidal rotation is normally very weakly damped in plasmas that are magnetically confined in the nominally toroidally symmetric tokamak. However, a strong damping of toroidal rotation is observed as such plasmas approach marginal stability for perturbations that produce a kinklike distortion of the plasma. It is shown that the damping of toroidal rotation by very small departures of the magnetic field from toroidal symmetry is greatly enhanced as marginal stability is approached. The response of a plasma to perturbations is studied using a set of electrical circuit elements, which provide an equation for the rotational damping that requires minimal information about the plasma.