Core temperature fluctuations and related heat transport in the Texas Experimental Tokamak-Upgrade

Abstract

The mechanism(s) responsible for anomalous heat transport in the tokamak plasma core has remained elusive to experimental verification. In this paper the hypothesis that high-frequency electrostatic turbulence can account for the measured electron heat transport in Ohmically heated tokamak discharges of the Texas Experimental Tokamak-Upgrade (TEXT-U) [Proceedings of the 15th Symposium on Fusion Technology, Utrecht (Elsevier, Amsterdam, 1989), Vol. 1, p. 342] is tested. To accomplish this, core temperature fluctuations have been determined from the measured correlation between two electron cyclotron radiation signals detected by a multichannel high-frequency-resolution heterodyne radiometer. It is found that long wavelength modes (poloidal wave number ≲1 cm−1) are present, with an electron temperature fluctuation amplitude comparable to the density fluctuation amplitude. However, these modes cannot account for observed transport. An extrapolation of the observed turbulent temperature spectrum to the shorter wavelengths measured by far infrared scattering shows that shorter-wavelength electrostatic turbulence could still be responsible for transport.