Electron Temperature Gradient Turbulence

Abstract

The first toroidal, gyrokinetic, electromagnetic simulations of small scale plasma turbulence are presented. The turbulence considered is driven by gradients in the electron temperature. It is found that electron temperature gradient (ETG) turbulence can induce experimentally relevant thermal losses in magnetic confinement fusion devices. For typical tokamak parameters, the transport is essentially electrostatic in character. The simulation results are qualitatively consistent with a model that balances linear and secondary mode growth rates. Significant streamer-dominated transport at long wavelengths occurs because the secondary modes that produce saturation become weak in the ETG limit.