This whitepaper was submitted to the 2019-2020 APS-DPP-CPP (American Physical Society Division of Plasma Physics Community Planning Process) on plasma discovery science. It highlights the need for diverse computational approaches including global and local models, as well as the need for a hierarchy of physics models in complex and multi-scale magnetically and flow-dominated astrophysical systems. Examples of turbulent small-scale vs. large-scale dynamos and turbulent vs. ordered zonal flows in such systems are discussed.

Numerical simulations of interchange/tearing instabilities in a 2D slab with a numerical model for edge plasma resistivity are carried out. Plasma outside the Last Closed Flux Surface (LCFS), or the scrape-off layer (SOL), can be characterized by open magnetic fields which terminate on the divertor plates in the outside. A numerical model with current diffusivity is developed to enforce a low-level saturated current profile in the SOL region as well as a current jump across the LCFS. The numerical simulations show that interchange modes can transform into tearing modes, as the current-interchange tearing modes which has been proposed by Zheng and Furukawa [Phys. Plasmas 17, 052508 (2010)]. An applicability of the model to the tokamak edge stability and ELM studies is discussed.

Plasma Instabilities Plasma Turbulence Transport in Magnetically Confined Hot Plasmas Data on Plasma Experiments.

A profile for the critical gradient scale length (Lc) has been measured in L-mode discharges at the Alcator C-Mod tokamak, where electrons were heated by an ion cyclotron range of frequency through minority heating with the intention of simultaneously varying the heat flux and changing the local gradient. The electron temperature gradient scale length (LTe−1 = |∇Te|/Te) profile was measured via the BT-jog technique [Houshmandyar et al., Rev. Sci. Instrum. 87, 11E101 (2016)] and it was compared with electron heat flux from power balance (TRANSP) analysis. The Te profiles were found to be very stiff and already above the critical values, however, the stiffness was found to be reduced near the q = 3/2 surface. The measured Lc profile is in agreement with electron temperature gradient (ETG) models which predict the dependence of Lc−1 on local Zeff, Te/Ti, and the ratio of the magnetic shear to the safety factor. The results from linear Gene gyrokinetic simulations suggest ETG to be the dominant mode of turbulence in the electron scale (k⊥ρs > 1), and ion temperature gradient/trapped electron mode modes in the ion scale (k⊥ρs < 1). The measured Lc profile is in agreement with the profile of ETG critical gradients deduced from Gene simulations.

Tore Supra electron thermal fluxes, analyzed over a range of heating powers and plasma densities, are shown to vary parametrically according to the small-scale electron temperature gradient (ETG) model, rather than the ion inertial scale electrostatic gyro-Bohm model. Steady-state power balance analysis and time-varying interpretative transport simulations, performed on the Tore Supra Fast Wave Electron Heating database, validate the ETG thermal flux-versus-gradient relation and the existence of a critical electron temperature gradient. The critical gradient length R/Lc and the parametric dependence of the thermal flux, qe(ne,Te,∇Te,q,s), agree well with the ETG model.