Impact of plasma poloidal rotation on resistive wall mode instability in toroidally rotating plasmas

Stability of resistive wall mode (RWM) is investigated in a cylindrical plasma and an axisymmetric toroidal plasma by taking into account not only toroidal rotation but also poloidal rotation. Since the Doppler shifted frequency is responsible for the RWM stability, the modification of this Doppler shifted frequency by poloidal rotation affects the rotation effect on RWM. When a poloidal rotation frequency is not so large, the effect of poloidal rotation on the RWM stability can be approximately treated with the modified toroidal rotation frequency. In a toroidal plasma, this modified frequency is determined by subtracting a toroidal component of the rotation parallel to the magnetic field from the toroidal rotation frequency. The poloidal rotation that counteracts the effect of the Doppler shift strongly reduces the stabilizing effect of toroidal rotation, but by changing the rotational direction, the poloidal rotation enhances this stabilizing effect. This trend is confirmed in not only a cylindrical plasma but also a toroidal plasma. This result indicates that poloidal rotation produces the dependence of the critical toroidal rotation frequency for stabilizing RWM on the rotational direction of toroidal rotation in the same magnetic configuration. (C) 2011 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3551731]