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Updated: Oct 24, 2025

Non-equilibrium Microwave Plasma for Efficient High Temperature Chemistry
Published on: August 1, 2017
Neoclassical Tearing Mode Seeding by Nonlinear Three-Wave Interactions in Tokamaks
L Bardóczi1, N C Logan2, E J Strait1
1General Atomics, P.O. Box 85608, San Diego, California 92186-5608, USA.
Abstract:
We report the experimental observation of seed magnetic island formation by nonlinear three-wave coupling of magnetic island triplets. In this experiment, disruptive 2,1 islands are seeded by the coupling of 4,3 and 3,2 tearing modes to a central 1,1 sawtooth precursor. Three-wave interactions between these modes are conclusively identified by bispectral analysis, indicating fixed phase relationships in agreement with theory. This new observation of this seeding mechanism has important implications for future reactors that must operate in stable plasma equilibria, free of disruptive 2,1 islands.
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