Geometric stabilization of the electrostatic ion-temperature-gradient driven instability. II. Non-axisymmetric systems

Abstract

A non-perturbative analysis for the study non-axisymmetric (3D) effects on the linear ion-temperature-gradient driven mode is introduced. Perturbations and equilibria are considered to be global on the flux surface, yet radially local. The analysis is valid for systems arbitrarily far from axisymmetry. It is found that finite Larmor radius effects can suppress the global (on the surface) instability, in analogy with the local analysis but shift its poloidal location from the position of the greatest local instability. Fourier spectra of the instability whose width grow for increasingly non-axisymmetric systems are predicted. Results are in qualitative agreement with numerical global (on the surface) gyrokinetic simulations.