The 'density limit' is one of the fundamental bounds on tokamak operating space, and is commonly estimated via the empirical Greenwald scaling. This limit has garnered renewed interest in recent years as it has become clear that ITER and many tokamak pilot plant concepts must operate near or above the Greenwald limit to achieve their objectives. Evidence has also grown that the Greenwald scaling—in its remarkable simplicity—may not capture the full complexity of the density limit. In this study, we assemble a multi-machine database to quantify the effectiveness of the Greenwald limit as a predictor of the L-mode density limit and compare it with data-driven approaches. We find that a boundary in the plasma edge involving dimensionless collisionality and pressure, , achieves significantly higher accuracy (false positive rate (FPR) of 2.3% at a true positive rate (TPR) of 95%) of predicting density limit disruptions than the Greenwald limit (FPR of 13.4% at a TPR of 95%) across a multi-machine dataset including metal- and carbon-wall tokamaks (AUG, C-Mod, DIII-D, and TCV). This two-parameter boundary succeeds at predicting L-mode density limits by robustly identifying the radiative state preceding the terminal MHD instability. This boundary can be applied for density limit avoidance in current devices and in ITER, where it can be measured and responded to in real time.
This paper investigates the density limit in tokamak fusion devices, which is a critical factor for achieving high performance. The study finds that a boundary involving edge collisionality and pressure is a more accurate predictor of the density limit than the commonly used Greenwald scaling. This new boundary can help avoid density limit disruptions in current and future fusion devices.