Beta scaling of transport on the DIII-D Tokamak: Is transport electrostatic or electromagnetic?

Determining the scaling of transport with beta (β), the ratio of the plasma kinetic pressure to the magnetic pressure, helps to differentiate between various proposed theories of turbulent transport since mechanisms that are primarily electrostatic show little change in transport with increasing β, while primarily electromagnetic mechanisms generally have a strong unfavorable β scaling. Experiments on the DIII-D tokamak [J.L. Luxon, Nucl. Fusion 42, 614 (2002)] have measured the β scaling of heat transport with all of the other dimensionless parameters held constant in high confinement mode (H-mode) plasmas with edge localized modes. A four point scan varied β from 30% to 85% of the ideal ballooning stability limit (normalized beta from 1.0 to 2.8) and found no change in the normalized confinement time, i.e., Bτth∝β−0.01±0.09. The measured thermal diffusivities, normalized to the Bohm diffusion coefficient, also did not vary during the β scan to within the experimental uncertainties, whereas the normalize...

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