Modeling of stochastic broadening in a poloidally diverted discharge with piecewise analytic symplectic mapping flux functions

Abstract

A highly accurate calculation of the magnetic field line Hamiltonian in DIII-D [J. L. Luxon and L. E. Davis, Fusion Technol. 8, 441 (1985)] is made from piecewise analytic equilibrium fit data for shot 115467 3000ms. The safety factor calculated from this Hamiltonian has a logarithmic singularity at an ideal separatrix. The logarithmic region inside the ideal separatrix contains 2.5% of toroidal flux inside the separatrix. The logarithmic region is symmetric about the separatrix. An area-preserving map for the field line trajectories is obtained in magnetic coordinates from the Hamiltonian equations of motion for the lines and a canonical transformation. This map is used to calculate trajectories of magnetic field lines in DIII-D. The field line Hamiltonian in DIII-D is used as the generating function for the map and to calculate stochastic broadening from field-errors and spatial noise near the separatrix. A very negligible amount (0.03%) of magnetic flux is lost from inside the separatrix due to these nonaxisymmetric fields. It is quite easy to add magnetic perturbations to generating functions and calculate trajectories for maps in magnetic coordinates. However, it is not possible to integrate across the separatrix. It is also difficult to find the physical position corresponding to magnetic coordinates. For open field lines, periodicity in the poloidal angle is assumed, which is not satisfactory. The goal of this paper is to demonstrate the efficacy of the symplectic mapping approach rather than using realistic DIII-D parameters or modeling specific experimental results.