SEARCH FOR ION TEMPERATURE-GRADIENT DRIVEN ELECTROSTATIC HYDRODYNAMIC INSTABILITY IN TOKAMAKS

The ion temperature gradient drive electrostatic instability in tokamak magnetic geometry has been investigated numerically in terms of a generalized ion density moment. For typical tokamak parameters (ratio between the density gradient scale length and the major radius, epsilon //n equals L//n/R, about 0 (0. 1) and T//i congruent T//e) the search for rapidly growing instabilities of a hydrodynamic nature has been unsuccessful, even with the ion temperature gradient relative to the density gradient, eta //i equals d(ln T//i)/d(lnn//o), as large as six.