Nondiffusive transport regimes for suprathermal ions in turbulent plasmas.

The understanding of the transport of suprathermal ions in the presence of turbulence is important for fusion plasmas in the burning regime that will characterize reactors, and for space plasmas to understand the physics of particle acceleration. Here, three-dimensional measurements of a suprathermal ion beam in the toroidal plasma device TORPEX are presented. These measurements demonstrate, in a turbulent plasma, the existence of subdiffusive and superdiffusive transport of suprathermal ions, depending on their energy. This result stems from the unprecedented combination of uniquely resolved measurements and first-principles numerical simulations that reveal the mechanisms responsible for the nondiffusive transport. The transport regime is determined by the interaction of the suprathermal ion orbits with the turbulent plasma dynamics, and is strongly affected by the ratio of the suprathermal ion energy to the background plasma temperature.

Time-Resolved Measurements of Suprathermal Ion Transport Induced by Intermittent Plasma Blob Filaments.

Suprathermal ion turbulent transport in magnetized plasmas is generally nondiffusive, ranging from subdiffusive to superdiffusive depending on the interplay of the turbulent structures and the suprathermal ion orbits. Here, we present time-resolved measurements of the cross-field suprathermal ion transport in a toroidal magnetized turbulent plasma. Measurements in the superdiffusive regime are characterized by a higher intermittency than in the subdiffusive regime. Using conditional averaging, we show that, when the transport is superdiffusive, suprathermal ions are transported by intermittent field-elongated turbulent structures that are radially propagating.