The computation of resistive MHD instabilities in axisymmetric toroidal plasmas (Q1201688)

The paper primarily addresses computationally oriented plasma physicists and treats the problem of resistive magnetohydrodynamics instabilities of axisymmetric toroidal equilibria. This problem is relevant in order to improve the magnetic confinement properties of tokamak fusion reactors. Firstly, two systems of partial differential equations are derived which are used to describe the MHD equilibria and the linearized resistive MHD eigenmodes. The latter system is implemented in a numerical scheme, the NOVA-R code. After describing the numerical methods used in this scheme, numerical results are presented and discussed in cylindrical and toroidal geometry. In the limit of zero plasma resistivity, the NOVA-R code recovers the results of a 2D ideal MHD code, NOVA.