Characterized divertor footprint profile modification with the edge pressure gradient in the Large Helical Device

The first attempt to characterize the divertor footprint profile in the heliotron device LHD was done, by using a number of Langmuir probes and the multivariable analysis technique. In order to clarify the generation mechanism of the private-side peak on the footprint profile, which has not been reproduced in the modeling study, over 6000 time points were extracted by excluding time points with profile modifications due to already-known reasons. A characterization index r(2/1) was newly defined from the multivariable analysis result, and its dependences on upstream parameters were investigated. As a result, it was found that the footprint profile correlates with the pressure gradient at the edge inside the core region with a fixed beta, suggesting that change of the plasma pressure profile could modify the edge magnetic field structure even if the volume integral of the plasma pressure was constant.