Paper detail

RF current condensation in the presence of turbulent enhanced transport

Sharp temperature gradients in a magnetically confined plasma can lead to turbulent motion of the plasma. This turbulence in turn enhances the transport of heat across magnetic field lines. The enhanced transport impacts the temperature differential that can be sustained in magnetic islands between the island centre and its periphery. It is shown here that, by limiting this temperature differential, this enhanced transport can have a profound influence on the extent to which the RF current condensation effect stabilises the island growth. Interestingly, because the heat transport is no longer simply linear in the temperature gradient, the RF current condensation effect also exhibits entirely new hysteresis phenomena.