A strong relationship between the fishbone instability and internal transport barrier (ITB) formation has been found on the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) in high β N ELMy H-mode discharges. ITB formation always appears after the fishbone instability, and the fishbone disappears when the ITB grows to a certain extent. Hybrid simulations with the global kinetic-magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) code M3D-K have been carried out to investigate the linear stability and non-linear dynamics of beam-driven fishbone instabilities in these shots. The simulation results show that the fishbone instability absorbs the energy of the fast ions and changes the distribution function of the fast ions, leading to the accumulation of fast ions near the ITB, which might eventually assist in the formation of the ITB. The q = 1 surface disappearance caused by the bootstrap current generated by the steep pressure gradient in the ITB region has been considered as the reason for the fishbone instability vanishing. This process has also been reproduced in simulation. However, the timescale of this change in the q profile is not sufficient under classical current diffusion times. The simulation utilizes another assumption explaining the disappearance of the fishbone instability. The density will form a barrier in the ITB region, which should broaden the distribution of the fast ions, and the broadening profile of the distribution of the fast ion mitigates the growth of the fishbone instability.

A new branch of the m/n = 2/1 fishbone-like mode is found to be excitated by trapped energetic ions when the tearing mode is unstable. An energy-principle-based dispersion relation is derived and analyzed, which incorporates the wave-particle resonance and the resistive layer physics. Once the beta amplitude of trapped energetic ions exceeds a critical value, 2/1 fishbone-like instabilities would appear. The mode transition from tearing mode to 2/1 fishbone-like mode will be triggered with the increasing beta of trapped energetic ions. The total effects of the ideal magnetohydrodynamic potential energy and the adiabatic contribution of trapped energetic ions on the real frequency and growth rate of 2/1 fishbone-like modes are investigated; the effects of magnetic Reynolds number and magnetic shear are also studied. Both resistivity and magnetic shear play a stable role on 2/1 fishbone-like modes. An implication of the theory is conducive to understanding the 2/1 fishbone-like activities observed recently in HL-2A.

The effects of deeply trapped energetic ions (DTEIs) on the stability of tearing modes through stability criterion Δ′ are studied. In contrast to the stabilizing adiabatic effect of background plasma pressure, the adiabatic contribution of the DTEI destabilizes due to the direct coupling between the bad curvature and asymmetrical pressure of energetic ions. When the orbit width is much larger than the island width, the nonadiabatic effect of the DTEI stabilizes, which counteracts the major destabilizing adiabatic contribution. DTEIs are shown to have a net destabilizing effect on the tearing mode. The main physics of destabilization of Δ′ comes from the modification of the Mercier index.