RESUMEN
We use the beam model of Doppler backscattering (DBS), which was previously derived from beam tracing and the reciprocity theorem, to shed light on mismatch attenuation. This attenuation of the backscattered signal occurs when the wavevector of the probe beam's electric field is not in the plane perpendicular to the magnetic field. Correcting for this effect is important for determining the amplitude of the actual density fluctuations. Previous preliminary comparisons between the model and Mega-Ampere Spherical Tokamak (MAST) plasmas were promising. In this work, we quantitatively account for this effect on DIII-D, a conventional tokamak. We compare the predicted and measured mismatch attenuation in various DIII-D, MAST, and MAST-U plasmas, showing that the beam model is applicable in a wide variety of situations. Finally, we performed a preliminary parameter sweep and found that the mismatch tolerance can be improved by optimizing the probe beam's width and curvature at launch. This is potentially a design consideration for new DBS systems.
RESUMEN
Measurements of the relaxation of a zonal electrostatic potential perturbation in a nonaxisymmetric magnetically confined plasma are presented. A sudden perturbation of the plasma equilibrium is induced by the injection of a cryogenic hydrogen pellet in the TJ-II stellarator, which is observed to be followed by a damped oscillation in the electrostatic potential. The waveform of the relaxation is consistent with theoretical calculations of zonal potential relaxation in a nonaxisymmetric magnetic geometry. The turbulent transport properties of a magnetic confinement configuration are expected to depend on the features of the collisionless damping of zonal flows, of which the present Letter is the first direct observation.
RESUMEN
The effect of small deviations from a Maxwellian equilibrium on turbulent momentum transport in tokamak plasmas is considered. These non-Maxwellian features, arising from diamagnetic effects, introduce a strong dependence of the radial flux of cocurrent toroidal angular momentum on collisionality: As the plasma goes from nearly collisionless to weakly collisional, the flux reverses direction from radially inward to outward. This indicates a collisionality-dependent transition from peaked to hollow rotation profiles, consistent with experimental observations of intrinsic rotation.
RESUMEN
Beam emission spectroscopy (BES) measurements of ion-scale density fluctuations in the MAST tokamak are used to show that the turbulence correlation time, the drift time associated with ion temperature or density gradients, the particle (ion) streaming time along the magnetic field, and the magnetic drift time are consistently comparable, suggesting a "critically balanced" turbulence determined by the local equilibrium. The resulting scalings of the poloidal and radial correlation lengths are derived and tested. The nonlinear time inferred from the density fluctuations is longer than the other times; its ratio to the correlation time scales as ν(*i)(-0.8 ± 0.1), where ν(*i) = ion collision rate/streaming rate. This is consistent with turbulent decorrelation being controlled by a zonal component, invisible to the BES, with an amplitude exceeding those of the drift waves by â¼ ν(*i)(-0.8).
RESUMEN
Scaling laws for the transport and heating of trace heavy ions in low-frequency magnetized plasma turbulence are derived and compared with direct numerical simulations. The predicted dependences of turbulent fluxes and heating on ion charge and mass number are found to agree with numerical results for both stationary and differentially rotating plasmas. Heavy ion momentum transport is found to increase with mass, and heavy ions are found to be preferentially heated, implying a mass-dependent ion temperature for very weakly collisional plasmas and for partially ionized heavy ions in strongly rotating plasmas.
RESUMEN
Using theoretical arguments, a simple scaling law for the size of the intrinsic rotation observed in tokamaks in the absence of a momentum injection is found: The velocity generated in the core of a tokamak must be proportional to the ion temperature difference in the core divided by the plasma current, independent of the size of the device. The constant of proportionality is of the order of 10 km·s(-1)·MA·keV(-1). When the intrinsic rotation profile is hollow, i.e., it is countercurrent in the core of the tokamak and cocurrent in the edge, the scaling law presented in this Letter fits the data remarkably well for several tokamaks of vastly different size and heated by different mechanisms.
RESUMEN
Sheared toroidal flows can cause bifurcations to zero-turbulent-transport states in tokamak plasmas. The maximum temperature gradients that can be reached are limited by subcritical turbulence driven by the parallel velocity gradient. Here it is shown that q/ϵ (magnetic field pitch/inverse aspect ratio) is a critical control parameter for sheared tokamak turbulence. By reducing q/ϵ, far higher temperature gradients can be achieved without triggering turbulence, in some instances comparable to those found experimentally in transport barriers. The zero-turbulence manifold is mapped out, in the zero-magnetic-shear limit, over the parameter space (γ(E), q/ϵ, R/L(T)), where γ(E) is the perpendicular flow shear and R/L(T) is the normalized inverse temperature gradient scale. The extent to which it can be constructed from linear theory is discussed.
RESUMEN
Scaling laws for ion temperature gradient driven turbulence in magnetized toroidal plasmas are derived and compared with direct numerical simulations. Predicted dependences of turbulence fluctuation amplitudes, spatial scales, and resulting heat fluxes on temperature gradient and magnetic field line pitch are found to agree with numerical results in both the driving and inertial ranges. Evidence is provided to support the critical balance conjecture that parallel streaming and nonlinear perpendicular decorrelation times are comparable at all spatial scales, leading to a scaling relationship between parallel and perpendicular spatial scales. This indicates that even strongly magnetized plasma turbulence is intrinsically three dimensional.
RESUMEN
Nonlinear gyrokinetic simulations are conducted to investigate turbulent transport in tokamak plasmas with rotational shear. At sufficiently large flow shears, linear instabilities are suppressed, but transiently growing modes drive subcritical turbulence whose amplitude increases with flow shear. This leads to a local minimum in the heat flux, indicating an optimal E×B shear value for plasma confinement. Local maxima in the momentum fluxes are observed, implying the possibility of bifurcations in the E×B shear. The critical temperature gradient for the onset of turbulence increases with flow shear at low flow shears; at higher flow shears, the dependence of heat flux on temperature gradient becomes less stiff. The turbulent Prandtl number is found to be largely independent of temperature and flow gradients, with a value close to unity.
RESUMEN
The effect of momentum injection on the temperature gradient in tokamak plasmas is studied. A plausible scenario for transitions to reduced transport regimes is proposed. The transition happens when there is sufficient momentum input so that the velocity shear can suppress or reduce the turbulence. However, it is possible to drive too much velocity shear and rekindle the turbulent transport. The optimal level of momentum injection is determined. The reduction in transport is maximized in the regions of low or zero magnetic shear.
RESUMEN
The effect of flow shear on turbulent transport in tokamaks is studied numerically in the experimentally relevant limit of zero magnetic shear. It is found that the plasma is linearly stable for all nonzero flow shear values, but that subcritical turbulence can be sustained nonlinearly at a wide range of temperature gradients. Flow shear increases the nonlinear temperature gradient threshold for turbulence but also increases the sensitivity of the heat flux to changes in the temperature gradient, except over a small range near the threshold where the sensitivity is decreased. A bifurcation in the equilibrium gradients is found: for a given input of heat, it is possible, by varying the applied torque, to trigger a transition to significantly higher temperature and flow gradients.