Radial electric fields and their importance in fusion research

While the importance of radial electric fields was already perceived early in fusion research, a genuine flurry of activity was prompted by the experimental and theoretical recognition of a possible link between Er, and the establishment of edge and internal transport barriers in toroidal plasmas. The effects that the radial electric field and its finer structure is assumed to have on particle orbits, on collisional and turbulent transport and on bifurcation to improved confinement will be reviewed together with the experimental evidence for some of these effects. (author)