Gyrokinetic simulation study of magnetic island effects on neoclassical physics and micro-instabilities in a realistic KSTAR plasma

Abstract

We perform gyrokinetic simulations to study the effects of a stationary magnetic island on neoclassical flow and micro-instability in a realistic KSTAR plasma condition. Through the simulations, we aim to analyze a recent KSTAR experiment, which was to measure the details of poloidal flow and fluctuation around a stationary (2, 1) magnetic island [M. J. Choi et al., Nucl. Fusion 57, 126058 (2017)]. From the simulations, it is found that the magnetic island can significantly enhance the equilibrium E × B flow. The corresponding flow shearing is strong enough to suppress a substantial portion of ambient micro-instabilities, particularly ∇Te-driven trapped electron modes. This implies that the enhanced E × B flow can sustain a quasi-internal transport barrier for Te in an inner region neighboring the magnetic island. The enhanced E × B flow has a (2, 1) mode structure with a finite phase shift from the mode structure of the magnetic island. It is shown that the flow shear and the fluctuation suppression patterns implied from the simulations are consistent with the observations on the KSTAR experiment.