Characterization of radial turbulent fluxes in the Santander linear plasma machine

Abstract

It is shown that the statistical and correlation properties of the local turbulent flux measured at different radial locations of the cold, weakly ionized plasmas inside the Santander Linear Plasma Machine [Castellanos et al., Plasma Phys. Control. Fusion 47, 2067 (2005)] are consistent with diffusive-like transport dynamics. This is in contrast to the dynamical behavior inferred from similar measurements taken in hotter, fully ionized tokamak and stellarator edge plasmas, in which long-term correlations and other features characteristic of complex, non-diffusive transport dynamics have been reported in the past. These results may shed some light on a recent controversy regarding the possible universality of the dynamics of turbulent transport in magnetized plasmas. © 2014 AIP Publishing LLC.