Impact of poloidal convective cells on momentum flux in tokamaks

Abstract

Radial fluxes of parallel momentum due to $E\times B$ and magnetic drifts are shown to be correlated in tokamak plasmas. This correlation comes from the onset of poloidal convective cells generated by turbulence. The entire process requires a symmetry breaking mechanism, e.g. a mean shear flow. An analytical calculation shows that anti-correlation between the poloidal and parallel components of the turbulent Reynolds stress results in anti-correlation of the fluxes of parallel momentum generated by $E\times B$ and curvature drifts.

Keywords

• plasma physics
• turbulence
• tokamaks