The appearance of an internal particle transport barrier, correlated with a heat transport barrier, during strongly electron heated discharges in reversed magnetic shear scenario is well-established experimental evidence. Turbulent transport is believed to be responsible for the observed inward pinch. The mechanisms for the sustainment of such peaked density profiles in the absence of core particle sources are analysed in the framework of collisionless linear gyrokinetic turbulence theory. In particular, it is elucidated how the thermodiffusive pinch can become the dominant contribution to the total inward pinch. In stationary conditions, the pinch is shown to be carried mostly by trapped electrons, while passing electrons give a smaller contribution. The pinch is maximized when two different microinstabilities, namely the ion temperature gradient mode and the trapped electron mode are believed to coexist at similar linear growth rates. To reach this state at high values of the normalized density gradient, it is necessary to reduce the trapped electron mode activity via different stabilizing mechanisms. The role of impurities is also briefly discussed. A comprehensive analytical–numerical study of the linear stability properties of the modes allows the understanding of the physical mechanism in detail and the clarification of the possible drive of the observed pinch.
Effects of impurities on electron temperature gradient modes