In the 2014 year's campaign of experimental advanced superconducting tokamak (EAST), a series of Magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) instabilities were observed as the launching of Neutral Beam Injection (NBI), the most interesting one of which is the neoclassical tearing mode (NTM). Evidence clearly shows that a kink mode present after a strong sawtooth-like (ST-like) crash leaves a perturbation near the location of the magnetic island, providing the initial seed. The interaction of energetic ions makes the magnetic island oscillate both in island width and in rotation frequency. Analysis indicates that the bulk plasma still dominates the dynamics of NTM, and the orbit excursion of energetic ions induces a polarization current and modifies the width and rotation frequency of the neoclassical magnetic island.
Drift kinetic theory of neoclassical tearing modes in a low collisionality tokamak plasma: magnetic island threshold physics