TOROIDAL GYROKINETIC PARTICLE SIMULATIONS OF CORE FLUCTUATIONS AND TRANSPORT

The generation of low frequency electrostatic fluctuations and the formation of anomalous particle and heat diffusion in the core region of tokamak plasmas is investigated using gyrokinetic particle-in-cell simulations in toroidal geometry. We consider the case of H-mode tokamak plasmas characterized by nearly fiat core density profiles. The principle source of fluctuations include ion temperature gradient (ITG)-driven instabilities and ITG-dissipative trapped electron modes. We compare the evolution of both branches of instability and find that the electron diffusivity can be larger than the ion thermal diffusivity in the latter case. An externally imposed radial electric field, which gives rise to sheared poloidal flows, is demonstrated to reduce the radial correlation length of the turbulent transport and hence reduce the anomalous thermal flux.