Gyrokinetic turbulence under near-separatrix or nonaxisymmetric conditions

Linear and nonlinear gyrokinetic simulations with the GENE code [F. Jenko et al., Phys. Plasmas 7, 1904 (2000)] for tokamak edge plasmas as well as for stellarator core plasmas are presented, shedding light on the behavior of plasma microturbulence under near-separatrix or nonaxisymmetric conditions. To this aim, the required geometric coefficients are inferred directly from the magnetohydrodynamic equilibria of three different devices via the newly developed GIST code. It is found that the residual electron heat transport level in the H-mode edge can be explained in terms of high-wave-number fluctuations driven by electron temperature gradient modes. Moreover, the study of adiabatic ion temperature gradient turbulence in optimized stellarators points to the possibility of a systematic geometric optimization with respect to anomalous transport in nonaxisymmetric devices. (C) 2009 American Institute of Physics. [DOI: 10.1063/1.3089603]