Control of asymmetric magnetic perturbations in tokamaks

The sensitivity of tokamak plasmas to very small deviations from the axisymmetry of the magnetic field |δB→/B→| 10-4 is well known. What was not understood until very recently is the importance of the perturbation to the plasma equilibrium in assessing the effects of externally produced asymmetries in the magnetic field, even far from a stability limit. DIII-D and NSTX experiments find that when the deleterious effects of asymmetries are mitigated, the external asymmetric field was often made stronger and had an increased interaction with the magnetic field of the unperturbed equilibrium. This Letter explains these counterintuitive results. The explanation using ideal perturbed equilibria has important implications for the control of field errors in all toroidal plasmas.