ELM as a trigger mechanism for the transition between two Edge regimes

The possibility of edge regime transitions under the influence of edge-localized modes (ELMs) is investigated. A theoretical model of the process is presented and examined numerically. ELMs appear able to trigger irreversible transitions from one equilibrium to another with different edge temperatures. The results correspond to the recent experimental studies on both DIII-D and JET tokamaks showing type-I and type-II ELMs causing a prolonged collapse of the edge plasma temperature (copyright 2012 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH and Co. KGaA, Weinheim) (orig.)