Turbulence-induced safety factor profile flattening at rational surfaces in tokamaks with low magnetic shear

Abstract In this paper, we investigate the effects of ion-scale turbulence-generated currents on the local safety factor profile under conditions of low magnetic shear and proximity to rational surfaces, relevant to internal transport barrier formation. Our results show that turbulent currents can generate stationary zonal magnetic potential corrugations, producing a stepped safety factor profile with extended regions of zero magnetic shear. This change significantly affects turbulence self-interaction, resulting in a substantial decrease in turbulent transport, indicating a potential triggering mechanism for transport barrier formation.