Intrinsic Toroidal Rotation Driven by Turbulent and Neoclassical Processes in Tokamak Plasmas from Global Gyrokinetic Simulations

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Abstract

Gyrokinetic tokamak plasmas can exhibit intrinsic toroidal rotation driven by the residual stress. While most studies have attributed the residual stress to the parallel-momentum flux from the turbulent E×B motion, the parallel-momentum flux from the drift-orbit motion (denoted Π∥D) and the E×B-momentum flux from the E×B motion (denoted ΠE×B) are often neglected. Here, we use the global total-f gyrokinetic code XGC to study the residual stress in the core and the edge of a DIII-D H-mode plasma. Numerical results show that both Π∥D and ΠE×B make up a significant portion of the residual stress. In particular, Π∥D in the core is higher than the collisional neoclassical level in the presence of turbulence, while in the edge it represents an outflux of countercurrent momentum even without turbulence. Using a recently developed "orbit-flux"formulation, we show that the higher-than-neoclassical-level Π∥D in the core is driven by turbulence, while the outflux of countercurrent momentum from the edge is mainly due to collisional ion orbit loss. These results suggest that Π∥D and ΠE×B can be important for the study of intrinsic toroidal rotation.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number025101
JournalPhysical review letters
Volume133
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Jul 12 2024

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • General Physics and Astronomy

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