Transport-driven toroidal rotation in the tokamak edge

Abstract

The interaction of passing-ion drift orbits with spatially-inhomogeneous but purely diffusive radial transport is demonstrated to cause spontaneous toroidal spin-up to experimentally-relevant values in the tokamak edge. Physically, major-radial orbit shifts cause orbit-averaged diffusivities to depend on parallel velocity, including its sign, leading to residual stress. The resulting intrinsic rotation scales with ion temperature over poloidal magnetic field strength, resembling typical experimental scalings. Additionally, an inboard (outboard) X-point is expected to enhance co- (counter-) current rotation.