Magnetic geometry, plasma profiles, and stability

The history of the stability of short wavelength modes, such as MHD instabilities and drift waves, has been a long and tortuous one as increasingly realistic representations of the equilibrium magnetic geometry have been introduced. Early work began with simple slab or cylindrical models where plasma profiles and magnetic shear were seen to play key roles. Then the effects of toroidal geometry, in particular the constraints imposed by periodicity in the presence of magnetic shear, provided a challenge for theory, which was met by the ballooning transformation. More recently the limitations on the conventional ballooning theory arising from effects such as toroidal rotation shear, low magnetic shear, and the presence of the plasma edge have been recognized. These have led in turn to modifications and extensions of this theory. These developments have produced a continuously changing view of the stability of the 'universal' drift wave, for example. After a survey of this background, we describe more recent work of relevance to currently important topics, such as transport barriers characterized by the presence of strong rotation shear and low magnetic shear and the edge localized modes that occur in H-mode