Impact of edge magnetic perturbation (MP) on multi-scale turbulence and turbulent transport across a MP-induced edge transport reduction in the TEXTOR tokamak

Abstract

Reduced particle losses have been observed during the operation of an m/n = 6/2 resonant magnetic perturbation in the TEXTOR tokamak. The influence of the perturbation field on multi-scale turbulence and turbulent transport has been surveyed in detail across the perturbation-induced reduction of edge transport. The results indicate that with magnetic perturbation (MP), both the large-scale zonal flows and small-scale drift-wave turbulence are significantly reduced. At high MP currents, a reduction of edge transport can be realized due to primarily the decline of small-scale ambient turbulence and turbulent transport in the ergodic zone, where the turbulence eddy size is largely decreased. Investigation on the dynamic process of fluctuation quantities during the perturbation current ramp-up phase further shows that geodesic acoustic mode zonal flows and their nonlinear interaction with background turbulence decrease incessantly with increasing perturbation current. The transport reduction takes place only after small-scale turbulence starts to be strongly reduced by the MP when the MP strength reaches a certain threshold value.