Enhanced pedestal transport driven by edge collisionality on Alcator C-Mod and its role in regulating H-mode pedestal gradients

Abstract: Experimental measurements of plasma and neutral profiles across the pedestal are used in conjunction with 2D edge modeling to examine pedestal stiffness in Alcator C-Mod H-mode plasmas. Experiments on Alcator C-Mod observed pedestal degradation and loss in confinement below a critical value of net power crossing the separatrix, $$P_\mathrm{net} = P_\mathrm{net}^{\mathrm{crit}} \approx 2.3$$ MW. New analysis of ionization and particle flux profiles reveal saturation of the pedestal electron density, $n_{e}<sup>\mathrm{ped}$ despite continuous increases in ionization throughout the pedestal, inversely related to $P_\mathrm{net}$. A limit to the pedestal $\nabla n_{e}$ emerges as the particle flux, $\Gamma_{D}$ continues to grow, implying increases in the effective particle diffusivity, $D_\mathrm{eff}$. This is well-correlated with the separatrix collisionality, $\nu<sup>{*}_\mathrm{sep}$ and a turbulence control parameter, $\alpha_{t}$, implying a possible transition in type of turbulence. The transition is well correlated with the experimentally observed value of $P_\mathrm{net}<sup>\mathrm{crit}$. SOLPS-ITER modeling is performed for select discharges from the power scan, constrained with experimental electron and neutral densities, measured at the outer midplane. The modeling confirms general growth in $D_\mathrm{eff}$, consistent with experimental findings, and additionally suggests even larger growth in $\chi_{e}$ at the same $P_\mathrm{net}<sup>\mathrm{crit}$.