Isotope Effects on Trapped-Electron-Mode Driven Turbulence and Zonal Flows in Helical and Tokamak Plasmas

Impacts of isotope ion mass on trapped-electron-mode (TEM)-driven turbulence and zonal flows in magnetically confined fusion plasmas are investigated. Gyrokinetic simulations of TEM-driven turbulence in three-dimensional magnetic configuration of helical plasmas with hydrogen isotope ions and real-m...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physical review letters 2017-04, Vol.118 (16), p.165002-165002, Article 165002
Main Authors: Nakata, Motoki, Nunami, Masanori, Sugama, Hideo, Watanabe, Tomo-Hiko
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Fluid dynamics
Isotope effect
Isotopes
Plasmas
Tokamak devices
Transport
Turbulence
Turbulent flow
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Summary:Impacts of isotope ion mass on trapped-electron-mode (TEM)-driven turbulence and zonal flows in magnetically confined fusion plasmas are investigated. Gyrokinetic simulations of TEM-driven turbulence in three-dimensional magnetic configuration of helical plasmas with hydrogen isotope ions and real-mass kinetic electrons are realized for the first time, and the linear and the nonlinear nature of the isotope and collisional effects on the turbulent transport and zonal-flow generation are clarified. It is newly found that combined effects of the collisional TEM stabilization by the isotope ions and the associated increase in the impacts of the steady zonal flows at the near-marginal linear stability lead to the significant transport reduction with the opposite ion mass dependence in comparison to the conventional gyro-Bohm scaling. The universal nature of the isotope effects on the TEM-driven turbulence and zonal flows is verified for a wide variety of toroidal plasmas, e.g., axisymmetric tokamak and non-axisymmetric helical or stellarator systems.
ISSN:0031-9007
1079-7114
DOI:10.1103/physrevlett.118.165002