Quantified causality dependence of dynamical relation between zonal flow and heat transport on isotope mass in tokamak edge plasmas

doi:10.1088/1674-1056/ade069

Abstract The isotope effect on zonal flows (ZFs) and turbulence remains a key issue that is not completely solved in fusion plasmas. This paper presents the first experimental results of the ab initio prediction of causal relation between geodesic acoustic mode (GAM) and ambient turbulence at different isotope masses in the edge of HL-2A tokamak, where transfer entropy method based on information-theoretical approach is utilized as a quantified indicator of causality. Analysis shows that GAM is more pronounced in deuterium plasmas than in hydrogen, leading to a lower heat transport as well as more peaked profiles in the former situation. The causal impact of GAM on conductive heat flux component is stronger than on the convective component, which is resulted from a larger causal influence of zonal flow on temperature fluctuation. While a stronger GAM in deuterium plasmas has larger influence on all flux components, the relative change in temperature fluctuation and coefficient is more obvious when the ion mass varies. These findings not only offer an in-depth understanding of the real causality between zonal flow and turbulence in the present isotope experiments, but also provide useful ways for the physical understandings of transport and zonal flow dynamics in future deuterium-tritium fusion plasmas.

Keywords: isotope effect zonal flow heat transport causality

Received: 27 March 2025
Revised: 13 May 2025
Accepted manuscript online: 04 June 2025

PACS:	52.55.Fa	(Tokamaks, spherical tokamaks)
	52.55.-s	(Magnetic confinement and equilibrium)
	96.50.Tf	(MHD waves; plasma waves, turbulence)
	52.35.Kt	(Drift waves)

Fund: The authors thank to the HL-2A team for their operational assistance in the experiments. Project supported by the National MCF Energy Research and Development Program (Grant Nos. 2024YFE03190001, 2024YFE03190004, 2022YFE03030001, and 2019YFE03030002), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 12405257, 12475215, and 12475219), the Natural Science Foundation of Sichuan Province, China (Grant Nos. 2023NSFSC1289 and 2025ZNSFSC0066), the Nuclear Technology Research and Development Program (Grant No. HJSYF2024(02)), and the Innovation Program of Southwestern Institute of Physics (Grant No. 202301XWCX001).

Corresponding Authors: Zhongbing Shi
E-mail: shizb@swip.ac.cn

Cite this article:

Yu He(何钰), Zhongbing Shi(石中兵), Yuhong Xu(许宇鸿), Jun Cheng(程钧), Jianqiang Xu(许健强), Zhihui Huang(黄治辉), Na Wu(吴娜), Kaiyang Yi(弋开阳), Weice Wang(王威策), Min Jiang(蒋敏), Longwen Yan(严龙文), Xiaoquan Ji(季小全), and Wulyu Zhong(钟武律) Quantified causality dependence of dynamical relation between zonal flow and heat transport on isotope mass in tokamak edge plasmas 2025 Chin. Phys. B 34 105202

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Quantified causality dependence of dynamical relation between zonal flow and heat transport on isotope mass in tokamak edge plasmas

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