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By the gyrokinetic integral eigenmode equation, we numerically investigate the short-wavelength ion-temperature-gradient (SWITG) mode in tokamak plasmas with hollow density profiles. This paper finds that the critical ion temperature gradient (ITG) R / L TiC exists for the hollow density profile. Over such a gradient, the SWITG mode is unstable. The R / L TiC for a hollow density profile is slightly lower than that for a peaked density profile, though far away from the threshold, the mode in the latter case is more unstable. Furthermore, the scaling of the ITG threshold increasing with ion-to-electron temperature ratio T i / T e has been calculated, suggesting that the SWITG mode is more difficult to excite in hot ion plasmas as compared with that in hot electron plasmas. For the slightly hollow density profiles, it is shown that in the case of flat (peaked) electron temperature profiles, the SWITG modes are destabilized (stabilized) by the trapped electrons. For the steep hollow density profiles, however, the trapped electrons reduce the growth rate substantially, and thus, the SWITG stability threshold is raised significantly. In addition, the dependence of the threshold on local plasma parameters is analyzed in detail. It is found that the SWITG modes become more unstable for the high safety factor, small Larmor radius, weak magnetic shear, and high electron-to-ion temperature ratio. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We perform a numerical study of linear stability of the ion temperature gradient (ITG) mode and the trapped electron mode (TEM) in tokamak plasmas with inverted density profiles. A local gyrokinetic integral equation is applied for this study. From comprehensive parametric scans, we obtain stability diagrams for ITG modes and TEMs in terms of density and temperature gradient scale lengths. The results show that, for the inverted density profile, there exists a normalized threshold temperature gradient above which the ITG mode and the TEM are either separately or simultaneously unstable. The instability threshold of the TEM for the inverted density profile is substantially different from that for normal and flat density profiles. In addition, deviations are found on the ITG threshold from an early analytic theory in sheared slab geometry with the adiabatic electron response [T. S. Hahm and W. M. Tang, Phys. Fluids B 1, 1185 (1989)]. A possible implication of this work on particle transport in pellet fueled tokamak plasmas is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The resistive wall mode (RWM) instability is numerically investigated for a toroidal resistive plasma, with results compared to those of an analytic cylindrical model. The full toroidal code MARS-F [Liu et al., Phys. Plasmas 7, 3681 (2000)] is applied for a computational study. The results indicate that there are two branches of unstable RWMs, when the toroidal favorable average curvature effect (the GGJ effect) is taken into account in the resistive layer. In addition, the GGJ physics not only directly affects the mode growth rate, but also indirectly modifies the mode stability by changing the continuum damping through modifying the mode frequency in the plasma frame. Furthermore, the plasma resistivity can either stabilize or destabilize the RWM, depending on the regime of key plasma parameters (e.g., the plasma rotation). Similarly, the plasma rotation can stabilize or destabilize the RWM, depending on the plasma resistivity. These numerical results from MARS-F are qualitatively confirmed by an analytic theory model which includes the GGJ effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]