Disappearance of dimits shift in realistic fusion reactor plasmas with negative magnetic shear

Abstract This study employs gyrokinetic simulations to investigate ion temperature gradient (ITG) turbulence in realistic fusion reactor plasmas featuring reversed magnetic shear. The weakly negative magnetic shear is observed to be more stable for the ITG instability than strongly positive shear in this equilibrium configuration, primarily stemming from the scarcity of mode rational surfaces induced by the weak negative shear. This superiority in suppression for the negative shear persists in nonlinear turbulence with zonal flow artificially eliminated, where the emergence of turbulence solitons is observed and found associated with locally dense mode rational surfaces. However, the difference in transport levels among different magnetic shears diminishes in the presence of self-consistently generated zonal flow, accompanied by the disappearance of turbulence solitons. The nonlinear generation of zonal flow is found to be significantly affected by the magnetic shear. The study reveals a remarkable phenomenon that the Dimits shift no longer exists for negative magnetic shear, which is attributed to the weakness of the zonal flow generation near the ITG marginal stability.