(TH/P8-11) Diamagnetic GAM Drive Mechanism
K. Hallatschek1)
1) Max-Planck-Institut für Plasmaphysik, Garching, Germany
Abstract. Geodesic Acoustic Modes (GAM), poloidal flows oscillating at the
characteristic acoustic frequency of a tokamak or stellarator, are an
ubiquitous edge plasma phenomenon. In recent years, they have
dramatically gained experimental interest and are candidates for
applications ranging from plasma diagnostics to transport control.
GAMs oscillate between states of strong rotation and up-down
asymmetric plasma compression. Hence, at first glance the natural
turbulent drive (or damping) mechanisms for them is either a direct
boost of the rotation - via Reynolds stress - or the creation of
asymmetric pressure distributions - via transport. However, an
up-down asymmetric pressure may also be created by the divergence of
the diamagnetic drifts, if there is a perturbation in the diamagnetic
drift velocity, i.e., of the overall pressure gradient. That in turn
may fluctuate due to any modulation of the flux surface averaged
turbulent transport. On the other hand, a modulation of the turbulent
transport due to the GAMs themselves is expected to happen in the
tokamak edge, and has been observed early on in simulations and
recently in many experiments.
In turbulence simulations for edge parameters, the described effect
tendencially is a strong driver of the GAMs of equal importance to the
other two. As a striking consequence, the coupling of diamagnetic velocity and
GAM can produce propagating fronts of high flow velocity and
transport, which closely resemble avalanches - without necessity of
a critical gradient. The diamagnetic flow drive is strong enough
to advance the flow and transport layer in radial direction - although
the linear dispersion relation would just result in a localized
oscillation!
An interesting consequence of the diamagnetic drive mechanism is that
it offers the possibility of direct excitation of GAMs by resonantly
modulated external heating (replacing turbulent transport with heating
power). If the GAMs are detected by Doppler reflectometry, the
achievable efficiency is certainly enough for diagnostic purposes such
as to actively probe the GAM frequencies or to measure the
turbulence response to the GAMs. Particularly exciting however is the
prospect of a way to artificially set up a GAM pattern to
control the transport.
Full paper available (PDF)
|