A model for microinstability destabilization and enhanced transport in the presence of shielded 3D magnetic perturbations

A mechanism is presented that suggests shielded 3D magnetic perturbations can destabilize microinstabilities and enhance the associated anomalous transport. Using local 3D equilibrium theory, shaped tokamak equilibria with small 3D deformations are constructed. In the vicinity of rational magnetic surfaces, the infinite-n ideal MHD ballooning stability boundary is strongly perturbed by the 3D modulations of the local magnetic shear associated with the presence of near-resonant Pfirsch-Schluter currents. These currents are driven by 3D components of the magnetic field spectrum even when there is no resonant radial component. The infinite-n ideal ballooning stability boundary is often used as a proxy for the onset of virulent kinetic ballooning modes and associated stiff transport. These results suggest that the achievable pressure gradient may be lowered in the vicinity of low order rational surfaces when 3D magnetic perturbations are applied. This mechanism may provide an explanation for the observed reduction in the peak pressure gradient at the top of the edge pedestal during experiments where edge localized modes have been completely suppressed by applied 3D magnetic fields.