An arbitrary wavelength solver for global gyrokinetic simulations. Application to the study of fine radial structures on microturbulence due to non-adiabatic passing electron dynamics

The influence of the fine layers of the non-adiabatic passing electron response on electrostatic turbulent transport, previously studied systematically in flux tube geometry [Dominski et al., Phys. Plasmas 22, 062303 (2015)], is pursued in global geometry in conditions relevant for the TCV tokamak with a deuterium plasma (m_i/m_e = 3672). The spectral organization of the passing electron turbulent flux and its dependence on the radial profile of the safety factor are revealed. A radially dependent toroidal spectral analysis of the turbulent fluxes led to the key result that the particle and heat diffusivities of passing-electrons are proportional to the local density of low-order mode rational surfaces. To permit this study of the short radial scales associated with the passing electron dynamics, a new field solver valid at an arbitrary wavelength is implemented in ORB5, for the gyrokinetic quasi-neutrality equation. A benchmark is conducted against the global version of the gyrokinetic code GENE, showing very good agreement.