Stabilizing effect of ion pressure gradient on magnetic curvature-driven drift modes located at rational surface of tokamak plasma

In the fluid model, we derive a dispersion relation for the toroidal drift modes of tokamak plasmas, including the ion pressure gradient and the magnetic field gradient and curvature. It is shown that the magnetic field gradient and curvature (MFGC) can cause instabilities at the rational surface, which are of toroidicity-induced (TI) modes. On the other hand, it is discovered that the ion pressure gradient can stabilize the present MFGC instabilities. The critical threshold of ion pressure gradient, which makes the growth rate reduced to zero, is obtained both analytically and numerically.