Suppression of ion temperature gradient modes by Alfvén activity above a drive threshold in DIII-D

Authors:
Publisher website
Google Scholar
Abstract
A recent study demonstrates that the suppression of ion temperature gradient (ITG) modes can occur during the nonlinear evolution of toroidicity-induced Alfvén eigenmodes (TAEs) in the DIII-D tokamak [Du et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 265101 (2025)]. In that work, ITG was suppressed by the formation of a narrow, TAE-induced shear flow layer, whose shearing rate exceeded the ITG decorrelation rate. The shear flow arises from an imbalance between Reynolds and Maxwell stress forces, as the TAE departs from the conventional shear Alfvén wave polarization. This follow-up paper systematically identifies the plasma conditions required for robust ITG suppression through a series of comparative experiments. The results show that TAEs routinely suppress ITG turbulence in plasmas with higher local safety factor (q), elevated fast-ion beta, and larger populations of fast ions on passing orbits, i.e., conditions consistent with the substantial TAE drive. Database analysis further reveals the existence of a threshold in TAE drive for ITG suppression. That is, once the drive exceeds a critical value within a favorable q window, the system undergoes the nonlinear bifurcation process, characterized by a sharp increase in TAE saturated amplitudes at a nearly fixed fast ion drive, suppression of ITG turbulence, and the formation of an internal thermal transport barrier at the localized radii.
Funding Information
  • U.S. Department of Energy (DE-FC02-04ER54698)
  • U.S. Department of Energy (DE-SC0020337)
  • U.S. Department of Energy (DE-FG02-08ER54999)
  • U.S. Department of Energy (DE-SC0020287)
  • U.S. Department of Energy (DE-SC0015878)
  • U.S. Department of Energy (DE-FG02-97ER54415)
  • U.S. Department of Energy (DE-SC0014664)

This publication has 51 references indexed in Scilit: