Plasma edge transport with magnetic islands—a comparison between tokamak and reversed-field pinch

Abstract

In the reversed-field pinch (RFP) edge, measured transport and flows are strongly influenced by magnetic islands (Vianello 2013 Nucl. Fusion 53 073025). In fact, these islands determine a differential radial diffusion of electrons and ions which, interacting with the wall, give rise to a characteristic edge ambipolar potential. Such island structures also arise in tokamak plasmas, when resonant magnetic perturbations (RMPs) are applied for control of edge-localized modes. They impose a characteristic modulation to edge electron density and temperature fields, in close correlation with the local magnetic vacuum topology (Schmitz 2012 Nucl. Fusion 52 054001). In order to develop a generic picture of particle transport with magnetic islands located in the plasma edge between RFPs and tokamaks with RMP, test-particle transport simulations are done on TEXTOR with the same tool used in RFX-mod, namely, the guiding-centre code ORBIT (White and Chance 1984 Phys. Fluids 27 2455–67). A typical TEXTOR discharge in the (m, n) = (12, 4) configuration is reconstructed and analysed with ORBIT. We use Poincaré and connection length analysis of electrons and ion orbits to analyse the magnetic structure taking into account the different gyro-orbits of both constituents. Density distributions of test ions and electrons are calculated and used to obtain an initial estimate of the plasma potential and radial electric field around the island.