Kinetic Ballooning Mode Under Steep Gradient: High Order Eigenstates and Mode Structure Parity Transition

Abstract: The existence of kinetic ballooning mode (KBM) high order (non-ground) eigenstates for tokamak plasmas with steep gradient is demonstrated via gyrokinetic electromagnetic eigenvalue solutions, which reveals that eigenmode parity transition is an intrinsic property of electromagnetic plasmas. The eigenstates with quantum number $l=0$ for ground state and $l=1,2,3\ldots$ for non-ground states are found to coexist and the most unstable one can be the high order states ($l\neq0$). The conventional KBM is the $l=0$ state. It is shown that the $l=1$ KBM has the same mode structure parity as the micro-tearing mode (MTM). In contrast to the MTM, the $l=1$ KBM can be driven by pressure gradient even without collisions and electron temperature gradient. The relevance between various eigenstates of KBM under steep gradient and edge plasma physics is discussed.