Gyrokinetic profile prediction and validation of a negative triangularity plasma in ASDEX Upgrade

Abstract In this work, gyrokinetic simulations are performed with the CGYRO code (Candy et al 2016 J. Comput. Phys. 324 73–93) for a negative triangularity H-mode plasma in ASDEX Upgrade, and compared with experimental measurements. The PORTALS framework (Rodriguez-Fernandez et al 2024 Nucl. Fusion 64 076034) is used to accelerate the prediction of kinetic profiles for this plasma, using surrogate modeling and Bayesian optimization. Ion heat flux, electron heat flux, and electron particle flux are simultaneously matched across the simulated radial regime of the plasma (normalized radius <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" overflow="scroll"> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>r</mml:mi> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>/</mml:mo> </mml:mrow> <mml:mi>a</mml:mi> <mml:mo>=</mml:mo> <mml:mn>0.35</mml:mn> <mml:mo>−</mml:mo> <mml:mn>0.90</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> ), and the resulting ion temperature, electron temperature, and electron density profiles match well with the experimental profile data within this radial range. A synthetic Correlation Electron Cyclotron Emission diagnostic is applied to find well-matched electron temperature fluctuation properties between simulation and experiment. The flux-matched profiles provide a basis for investigation of the turbulence nature across the plasma radius, revealing the dominance of Trapped Electron Mode turbulence at <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" overflow="scroll"> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>r</mml:mi> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>/</mml:mo> </mml:mrow> <mml:mi>a</mml:mi> <mml:mo>=</mml:mo> <mml:mn>0.35</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> , the dominance of Ion Temperature Gradient turbulence at <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" overflow="scroll"> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>r</mml:mi> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>/</mml:mo> </mml:mrow> <mml:mi>a</mml:mi> <mml:mo>=</mml:mo> <mml:mn>0.55</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> , 0.75, and 0.83, and an instability boundary at <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" overflow="scroll"> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>r</mml:mi> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>/</mml:mo> </mml:mrow> <mml:mi>a</mml:mi> <mml:mo>=</mml:mo> <mml:mn>0.90</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> .