Beta limits and Edge Stability for Negative Triangularity Plasma in TCV Tokamak

In L-mode TCV tokamak discharges the electron heat transport has been found to decrease towards negative triangularity [1], leading to a factor of two improvement in confinement from δ = 0.4 to -0.4. This trend of confinement with triangularity in L-mode stands in opposition to H-mode confinement, where the confinement improves with increasing positive triangularity (ASDEX-UPGRADE, JET), due to pedestal pressure increase with positive triangularity. Also, ELM induced heat loads are a severe threat for the first wall of a reactor. It is thus crucial to find ways to reduce or to avoid large ELMs. Varying the triangularity, inclusive over the negative triangularity range, will bring new elements to H-mode physics and transport. The beta limits against both localized Mercier and ballooning modes and global pressure driven kink modes are lower for negative triangularity configurations. However, it gives a possibility to study resistive wall modes at lower power. When the X-point is placed on the LFS, where the curvature of the magnetic field lines is unfavorable, the current density needed to access the second stability domain increases significantly and may even exclude it altogether. The edge kink-ballooning mode stability limits follow the changes in the high-n limits behavior [2]. It gives lower pressure pedestal height attainable in the negative triangularity configurations. It could potentially lead to different ELM behaviors in positive and negative triangularity configurations.