TEM in toroidal plasmas with anisotropic electron temperature

Abstract Trapped electron modes (TEMs) in tokamak plasmas with anisotropies of electron temperature and its gradient are studied by solving the gyrokinetic integral eigenmode equation. Detailed numerical analyses indicate that, in comparison with that in plasmas of isotropic electron temperature, TEMs are enhanced (weakened) by the anisotropy with temperature in the direction perpendicular to magnetic field higher (lower) than that in the direction parallel to the magnetic field when the latter is kept constant. However, the enhancement is limited such that TEMs are weakened rapidly and even stabilized when the anisotropy is higher than a critical value owing to an effective reduction of bounce movement of the trapped electrons. In addition, it is found that the gradients of perpendicular and parallel temperatures of electrons have driving and suppressing effects on the TEMs, respectively. The overall effects of the temperature gradients of electrons and ions, magnetic shear, safety factor, and density gradient on TEMs in the presence of the anisotropies are presented in detail.