Statistical study of density fluctuations in the Tore Supra tokamak

Abstract

It is believed that radial anomalous transport in tokamaks is caused by plasma turbulence. Using infra-red laser scattering techniques on the Tore Supra tokamak, statistical properties of the density fluctuations are studied as a function of the scales in ohmic as well as additional heating regimes using the lower hybrid or the ion cyclotron frequencies. The probability distributions are compared to a Gaussian in order to estimate the role of intermittency which is found to be negligible. The temporal behaviour of the three-dimensional spectrum is thoroughly discussed; its multifractal character is reflected in the singularity spectrum. The auto-correlation coefficient is shown to reflect a short-time coherence of the dissipative structures as well as their long-time incoherence and statistical independence. We also put forward the existence of fluctuations transfer between two distinct but close wavenumbers. A rather clearer image is thus obtained about the way energy is transferred through the turbulent scales.