Instability and transport driven by an electron temperature gradient close to critical

Electron temperature gradient (ETG) driven instability in toroidal plasmas is studied with gyrokinetic theory. The full electron kinetics is considered. The upgraded numerical scheme for solving the integral eigenvalue equations allows the study of both growing and damping modes, and thus direct calculation of critical gradient. Algebraic formulas for the critical gradient with respect to ratio of electron temperature over ion temperature and to toroidicity are given. An estimation for turbulence induced transport is presented. (author)