Abstract
Measurements of the relaxation of a zonal electrostatic potential perturbation in a nonaxisymmetric magnetically confined plasma are presented. A sudden perturbation of the plasma equilibrium is induced by the injection of a cryogenic hydrogen pellet in the TJ-II stellarator, which is observed to be followed by a damped oscillation in the electrostatic potential. The waveform of the relaxation is consistent with theoretical calculations of zonal potential relaxation in a nonaxisymmetric magnetic geometry. The turbulent transport properties of a magnetic confinement configuration are expected to depend on the features of the collisionless damping of zonal flows, of which the present Letter is the first direct observation.
Original language | English (US) |
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Article number | 185002 |
Journal | Physical review letters |
Volume | 118 |
Issue number | 18 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - May 5 2017 |
Externally published | Yes |
All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- General Physics and Astronomy