Turbulent Nature of the Quasicontinuous Exhaust Regime for Fusion Plasmas.

Authors

Kaiyu Zhang, Wladimir Zholobenko, Andreas Stegmeir, Michael Faitsch, Konrad Eder, Christoph Pitzal, Frank Jenko, Asdex Upgrade Team

Published in

Physical review letters. Volume 137. Issue 5. Pages 055102. Jul 31, 2026.

Abstract

We demonstrate a turbulence mechanism that reconciles high plasma confinement with efficient heat exhaust-a central challenge for fusion energy. Global two-fluid turbulence simulations of the reactor-relevant quasicontinuous exhaust regime on the ASDEX Upgrade tokamak reveal that a quasicoherent mode drives mesoscopic oscillations of the pedestal boundary across the magnetic separatrix and ejects ballistic filaments (blobs), reproducing both the mean profiles and turbulent fluctuations observed experimentally. This behavior arises from a synergistic interplay between kinetic ballooning modes and resistive X-point modes straddling the separatrix. These first-principles results place extrapolations to future fusion reactors on a firm physical footing.

PMID:
42606473
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 17 Aug 2026.

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