Title: Suppression of Ion-Scale Microtearing Modes by Electron-Scale Turbulence via Cross-Scale Nonlinear Interactions in Tokamak Plasmas
Authors: Maeyama, S.; Watanabe, T.-H.; Ishizawa, A.
Abstract: Gyrokinetic turbulence simulations are applied for the first time to the cross-scale interactions of microtearing modes (MTMs) and electron-temperature-gradient (ETG) modes. The investigation of the fluctuation response in a multiscale simulation including both types of instabilities indicates that MTMs are suppressed by ETG turbulence. A detailed analysis of nonlinear mode coupling reveals that radially localized current-sheet structures of MTMs are strongly distorted by fine-scale E×B flows of ETG turbulence. Consequently, electron heat transport caused by the magnetic flutter of MTMs is significantly reduced and ETG turbulence dominates electron heat transport.
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