Gyrokinetic simulations of nonlinear interactions between magnetic islands and microturbulence

A conservative scheme of kinetic electrons for gyrokinetic simulations in the presence of magnetic islands has been implemented and verified in the gyrokinetic toroidal code, where zonal and nonzonal components of all perturbed quantities are solved together. Using this new conservative scheme, linear simulation of kinetic ballooning mode has been successfully benchmarked with the electromagnetic hybrid model. Simulations of nonlinear interactions between magnetic islands and the ion temperature gradient (ITG) mode in a tokamak show that the islands rotate at the electron diamagnetic drift velocity. The linear ITG structure shifts from the island O-point toward the X-point due to the pressure flattening effect inside the islands, and the nonlinear ITG structure peaks along the magnetic island separatrix because of the increased pressure gradient there.