plasma physics Plasma () is a state of matter characterized by the presence of a significant portion of charged particles in any combination of ions or electrons. It is the most abundant form of ordinary matter in the universe, mostly in stars (including th ...

, a tearing mode is a

plasma instability In plasma physics, plasma stability concerns the stability properties of a plasma in equilibrium and its behavior under small perturbations. The stability of the system determines if the perturbations will grow, oscillate, or be damped out. It ...

characterized by field line reconnection and the formation of magnetic islands. With islands emerging in the plasma, particles and heat can move from regions that were originally disconnected. Pressure and current density profiles are flattened, causing disruptions. The typical timescale for the growth of a tearing mode the order of 10⁻¹ microsec.

Types of Tearing mode

Rayleigh–Taylor instability The Rayleigh–Taylor instability, or RT instability (after Lord Rayleigh and G. I. Taylor), is an instability of an Interface (chemistry), interface between two fluids of different densities which occurs when the lighter fluid is pushing the hea ...

Magnetic reconnection Magnetic reconnection is a physical process occurring in electrically conducting Plasma (physics), plasmas, in which the magnetic topology is rearranged and magnetic energy is converted to kinetic energy, thermal energy, and particle accelerati ...

* Ballooning instability *

Resistive ballooning mode The resistive ballooning mode (RBM) is an instability occurring in magnetized plasmas, particularly in magnetic confinement devices such as tokamaks, when the pressure gradient is opposite to the effective gravity created by a magnetic field. Lin ...

* Universal instability *

Kelvin–Helmholtz instability The Kelvin–Helmholtz instability (after Lord Kelvin and Hermann von Helmholtz) is a fluid instability that occurs when there is shear velocity, velocity shear in a single continuum mechanics, continuous fluid or a velocity difference across t ...

* Disruption instability *

Edge-localized mode An edge-localized mode (ELM) is a plasma instability occurring in the edge region of a tokamak plasma due to periodic relaxations of the edge transport barrier in high-confinement mode. Each ELM burst is associated with expulsion of particles and ...

* Transport barrier mode

References

{{Reflist Plasma instabilities Stability theory