Kinetic Understanding of RMP Penetration and Pedestal Transport in Diverted Tokamak Geometry

A new understanding of self-organized RMP penetration effects on the pedestal plasma response has emerged from the XGC0 particle code with the inclusion of Monte Carlo neutrals and heat/torque sources. XGC0 provides a self-consistent evolution of RMP fields, E$_{r}$, plasma profiles, and toroidal current perturbation, which are essential in the RMP self-organization. Results are validated against DIII-D pedestal experiments, including n, T, E$_{r}$, U$_{i}$, and U$_{e \perp}$ profiles. The coil-induced magnetic islands and stochasticity are substantially reduced in the outer part (``skin-depth layer'') of the pre-RMP pedestal. However, islands and stochasticity survive at the inner part of the pre-RMP pedestal and into the core. As a result, RMPs enhance electron heat transport Q$_{e}$ in the inner part of the pre-RMP pedestal and into the core, but preserve the Q$_{e}$ barrier at the outer pre-RMP pedestal, as seen in DIII-D. Particle transport is enhanced in both regions, albeit less in the skin-depth layer. Q$_{e}$ enhancement in the stochastic region is not as catastrophic as that predicted by Rechester-Rosenbluth, since the trapped electrons have limited contribution to parallel heat conduction. Experiments in DIII-D show the existence of a finite ELM suppression q-window. XGC0 finds that the stochasticity suppression by plasma response is noticeably weaker inside the window. Q$_{e}$ is thus sensitive to the q- window, but density pump-out is not, well matching experiment. This suggests that the ``vacuum Chirikov$>$1 in the whole edge'' is only a necessary condition for the plasma to be in the ELM suppression window.