Highly peaked density and pressure profiles in a new operating regime have been observed on the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor (TFTR). The qprofile has a region of reversed magnetic shear extending from the magnetic axis to r / u-0.3-0.4. The central electron density rises from 0.45 x lo2' m-3 to nearly 1.2 x lo2' m-' during neutral beam injection. The electron particle diffusivity drops precipitously in the plasma core with the onset of the improved confinement mode and can be reduced by a factor of N 50 to near the neoclassical particle diffusivity level.

Dissipation of plasma toroidal angular momentum is observed in the National Spherical Torus Experiment due to applied nonaxisymmetric magnetic fields and their plasma-induced increase by resonant field amplification and resistive wall mode destabilization. The measured decrease of the plasma toroidal angular momentum profile is compared to calculations of nonresonant drag torque based on the theory of neoclassical toroidal viscosity. Quantitative agreement between experiment and theory is found when the effect of toroidally trapped particles is included.

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The National Spherical Torus Experiment (NSTX) offers an operational space characterized by high-beta (β t = 39%, β N > 7, β N /β no-wall N > 1.5) and low aspect ratio (A > 1.27) to leverage the plasma parameter dependences of RWM stabilization and plasma rotation damping physics giving greater confidence for extrapolation to ITER. Significant new capability for RWM research has been added to the device with the commissioning of a set of six nonaxisymmetric magnetic field coils, allowing generation of fields with dominant toroidal mode number, n, of 1-3. These coils have been used to study the dependence of resonant field amplification on applied field frequency and RWM stabilization physics by reducing the toroidal rotation profile below its steady-state value through non-resonant magnetic braking. Modification of plasma rotation profiles shows that rotation outside q = 2.5 is not required for passive RWM stability and there is large variation in the RWM critical rotation at the q = 2 surface, both of which are consistent with distributed dissipation models.