Effect of resonant magnetic perturbations on COMPASS-C tokamak discharges

Experimental results from the COMPASS-C tokamak reveal a sharp threshold in amplitude above which externally applied static resonant magnetic perturbations (RMPs) induce stationary magnetic islands. Such islands (in particular, m=2, n=1 islands) give rise to a significant degradation in energy and particle confinement, suppression of the sawtooth oscillation and a large change in the impurity ion toroidal velocity. The observed threshold for inducing stationary (2,1) islands is consistent with a phenomenological resistive MHD model which takes into account plasma rotation (including poloidal flow damping) and externally applied resonant fields. Broadly similar results are found for applied fields other than m=2, n=1. Other results from RMP experiments are also discussed, such as the stabilization of rotating MHD activity, stimulated disruptions and extensions to the disruptive density limit. Finally, the likely effect of field errors on large tokamaks is briefly examined in the light of the COMPASS-C results