title: Slow transition of energy transport in high-temperature plasmas.
abstract: A new slow transition process for energy transport in magnetically confined plasmas is reported. The slow transition is characterized by the change between two metastable transport conditions characterized by a weak and a strong electron temperature (Te) dependence of normalized heat flux. These two branches are found to merge at the critical gradient. In metastable transport, the derivative of normalized heat flux to the Te gradient, [EQUATION: SEE TEXT], is positive, while it becomes negative during the transition phase. The time for the transition increases as the normalized Te gradient is increased and exceeds the transport time scale characterized by the global energy confinement time.
authors.affiliation: National Institute for Fusion Sciences, Toki, Gifu 509-5292, Japan.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ida
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Inagaki
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Sakamoto
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Tanaka
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Funaba
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Takeiri
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ikeda
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Michael
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Tokuzawa
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Yamada
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Nagayama
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Itoh
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Kaneko
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Komori
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Motojima