Atomic physics effects on tokamak edge drift-tearing modes

The effects of ionization and charge exchange on the linear stability of drift-tearing modes are analytically investigated. In particular, the linear instability threshold ΔTh, produced by ion sound wave coupling [Phys. Rev. Lett. 40, 1500 (1978)] is modified. In the strongly collisional regime, the ionization breaks up the near cancellation of the perturbed electric field and the pressure gradient along the magnetic field, and increases the threshold. In the semicollisional regime, both ionization and charge exchange act as drag on the ion parallel velocity [Phys. Fluids B 4, 2567 (1992)], and consequently decrease the threshold by reducing the effectiveness of ion sound wave propagation