System size effects on gyrokinetic turbulence

The scaling of turbulence-driven heat transport with system size in magnetically confined plasmas is reexamined using first-principles based numerical simulations. Two very different numerical methods are applied to this problem, in order to resolve a long-standing quantitative disagreement, which m...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physical review letters 2010-10, Vol.105 (15), p.155001-155001, Article 155001
Main Authors: McMillan, B F, Lapillonne, X, Brunner, S, Villard, L, Jolliet, S, Bottino, A, Görler, T, Jenko, F
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
APPROXIMATIONS
CALCULATION METHODS
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
CONFINEMENT
ENERGY TRANSFER
HEAT TRANSFER
MAGNETIC CONFINEMENT
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
PLASMA
PLASMA CONFINEMENT
PLASMA SIMULATION
SCALING LAWS
SIMULATION
THERMAL DIFFUSIVITY
THERMODYNAMIC PROPERTIES
TURBULENCE
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Summary:The scaling of turbulence-driven heat transport with system size in magnetically confined plasmas is reexamined using first-principles based numerical simulations. Two very different numerical methods are applied to this problem, in order to resolve a long-standing quantitative disagreement, which may have arisen due to inconsistencies in the geometrical approximation. System size effects are further explored by modifying the width of the strong gradient region at fixed system size. The finite width of the strong gradient region in gyroradius units, rather than the finite overall system size, is found to induce the diffusivity reduction seen in global gyrokinetic simulations.
ISSN:0031-9007
1079-7114
DOI:10.1103/PhysRevLett.105.155001