TY - JOUR
T1 - Correlation between electron transport and shear alfvén activity in the national spherical torus experiment
AU - Stutman, D.
AU - Delgado-Aparicio, L.
AU - Gorelenkov, N.
AU - Finkenthal, M.
AU - Fredrickson, E.
AU - Kaye, S.
AU - Mazzucato, E.
AU - Tritz, K.
PY - 2009/3/18
Y1 - 2009/3/18
N2 - We report the observation of a correlation between shear Alfvén eigenmode activity and electron transport in plasma regimes where the electron temperature gradient is flat, and thus the drive for temperature gradient microinstabilities is absent. Plasmas having rapid central electron transport show intense, broadband global Alfvén eigenmode (GAE) activity in the 0.5-1.1 MHz range, while plasmas with low transport are essentially GAE-free. The first theoretical assessment of a GAE-electron transport connection indicates that overlapping modes can resonantly couple to the bulk thermal electrons and induce their stochastic diffusion.
AB - We report the observation of a correlation between shear Alfvén eigenmode activity and electron transport in plasma regimes where the electron temperature gradient is flat, and thus the drive for temperature gradient microinstabilities is absent. Plasmas having rapid central electron transport show intense, broadband global Alfvén eigenmode (GAE) activity in the 0.5-1.1 MHz range, while plasmas with low transport are essentially GAE-free. The first theoretical assessment of a GAE-electron transport connection indicates that overlapping modes can resonantly couple to the bulk thermal electrons and induce their stochastic diffusion.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=63049135673&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1103/PhysRevLett.102.115002
DO - 10.1103/PhysRevLett.102.115002
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AN - SCOPUS:63049135673
SN - 0031-9007
VL - 102
JO - Physical Review Letters
JF - Physical Review Letters
IS - 11
M1 - 115002
ER -
