Overview of initial negative triangularity plasma studies on the ASDEX Upgrade tokamak

Abstract An overview of results of negative triangularity (NT) studies from the ASDEX Upgrade tokamak (AUG) is given. Moderate values of the negative triangularity in the range of δaverage ≈ −0.2 have been obtained. Results from both unfavorable and favorable magnetic configuration in terms of high-confinement mode (H-mode) access are presented. In unfavorable configuration, the ion grad B drift points away from the active x-point, which usually results in a factor of 2 higher power thresholds to enter H-mode. In unfavorable configuration, low-confinement mode (L-mode) operation is confirmed at high auxiliary heating input powers > 10 MW at low collisionality. Under these conditions, plasmas with positive triangularity are usually in H-mode. Highest plasma energies have been obtained using a combination of neutral beam injection, electron- and ion cyclotron resonance heating, where values of the plasma beta of βN ≈ 1.7 have been reached in L-mode. While discharges with mixed auxiliary heating power input show moderate confinement on L-mode levels, plasmas heated with electron cyclotron resonance heating show H-mode like confinement. Operation in favorable configuration, however, leads to H-mode with type-I edge localized modes (ELMs). The power required for the L-H transition is comparable to the typical L-H power threshold in positive triangularity cases (< 2.6 MW), and good confinement of typical positive triangularity H-modes is obtained. The ELM frequency is demonstrated to reach 700 Hz. These results show a clear effect of the NT configuration on the ELM behavior in H-modes, and that on AUG, unfavorable configuration is an essential ingredient if H-mode operation is to be avoided in NT plasmas. So far, in all AUG NT plasmas, power degradation is observed. Initial gyrokinetic simulations of the edge plasma unfavorable configuraion reveal the ion-temperature gradient mode as the fastest growing mode with a subdominant trapped-electron-mode.