Central magnetohydrodynamic activity in pellet-fueled JT-60 plasmas

The central magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) activities are strongly affected by hydrogen pellet injection. The change in the sawtooth characteristics (viz., crash time, crash mechanisms, and sawtooth period) seem to be dependent on the density (and pressure) peakedness. With deepening pellet penetration, the sawtooth frequency becomes longer. At the sawtooth emerging after the deep pellet penetration into high-Ip limiter discharges, only a small amount of the central kinetic energy is released and the crash does not follow the fully reconnecting style. The sawtooth crash after the pellet injection tends to have more ideal-like characteristics for higher density and pressure peaking factors. At each sawtooth, the m=1 rotation frequency changes suddenly to the ion-diamagnetic direction or the codirection (parallel to the plasma current).