On the importance of parallel magnetic-field fluctuations for electromagnetic instabilities in STEP

Abstract

[ABRIDGED] This paper discusses the importance of parallel perturbations of the magnetic-field in gyrokinetic simulations of electromagnetic instabilities and turbulence at mid-radius in the burning plasma phase of the conceptual high-$\beta$, reactor-scale, tight-aspect-ratio tokamak STEP. Previous studies have revealed the presence of unstable hybrid kinetic ballooning modes (hKBMs) at binormal scales approaching the ion Larmor radius. In this STEP plasma it was found that the hKBM requires the inclusion of parallel magnetic-field perturbations to be linearly unstable. Here, the extent to which the inclusion of fluctuations in the parallel magnetic-field can be relaxed is explored through gyrokinetic simulations. In particular, the frequently used MHD approximation (dropping $\delta \! B_{\parallel}$ and setting the $\nabla B$ drift frequency equal to the curvature drift frequency) is discussed and simulations explore whether this approximation is useful for modelling STEP plasmas. It is shown that the MHD approximation can reproduce some of the linear properties of the full STEP gyrokinetic system, but is too stable at low $k_y$ and nonlinear simulations using the MHD approximation result in very different transport states. It is demonstrated that the MHD approximation is challenged by the high $\beta^{\prime}$ values in STEP, and that the approximation improves considerably at lower $\beta^{\prime}$. Furthermore, it is shown that the sensitivity of STEP to $\delta \! B_{\parallel}$ fluctuations is primarily because the plasma sits close to marginality and it is shown that in slightly more strongly driven conditions the hKBM is unstable without $\delta \! B_{\parallel}.$ Crucially, it is demonstrated that the state of large transport typically predicted by local electromagnetic gyrokinetic simulations of STEP plasmas is not solely due to $\delta \! B_{\parallel}$ physics.