Equations for studies of feedback stabilization

Important ideal magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) instabilities grow slowly when a conducting wall surrounds a toroidal plasma. Feedback stabilization of these instabilities may be required for tokamaks and other magnetic confinement concepts to achieve adequate plasma pressure and self-driven current for practical fusion power. Equations are derived for simulating feedback stabilization, which require the minimum information about an ideal plasma for an exact analysis. The equations are solved in the approximation of one unstable mode, one wall circuit, one feedback circuit, and one sensor circuit. The analysis based on a single unstable mode is shown to be mathematically equivalent to the standard analysis of feedback of the axisymmetric vertical instability of tokamaks. Unlike that analysis, the method presented here applies to multiple modes that are coupled by the wall and to arbitrary toroidal mode numbers. (C) 1998 American Institute of Physics. [S1070-664X(98)03009-2]