Studies of EDA H-mode in Alcator C-Mod

Studies of the enhanced D_α H-mode (EDA) have been extended to include ohmic plasmas. No clear difference in the EDA/ELMfree boundary or in other phenomenology are seen between ohmic and ICRF-heated plasmas, suggesting that neither the effect of ion tails nor direct RF/edge plasma interaction plays a role in EDA. Edge safety factor (q₉₅) is the principal variable which determines which regime a discharge will be in. When q₉₅ is greater than 4.0 for standard-shaped plasmas, the discharge is almost always EDA, while when it is less than 3.5, the plasma is almost always ELMfree. New edge diagnostics have allowed measurement of pedestal profiles with resolution of the order of 1 mm. Sudden changes in profile widths are not seen when the plasma makes a transition from EDA to ELMfree; however, the widths do vary with the same parameters that determine the EDA/ELMfree boundary. Strong edge-density fluctuations are observed to accompany EDA and may be responsible for the change in particle transport which is observed. The fluctuations have a quasi-coherent component whose frequency varies inversely with the pedestal width as measured by a visible continuum diagnostic.