Abstract
A study of anisotropic heat transport in 3-D chaotic magnetic fields is presented. The approach is based on the recently proposed Lagrangian-Green’s function (LG) method in Ref. [1] that allows an efficient and accurate integration of the parallel transport equation applicable to general magnetic fields with local or non-local parallel flux closures. We focus on reversed shear magnetic field configurations known to exhibit separatrix reconnection and shearless transport barriers. The role of reconnection and magnetic field line chaos on temperature transport is studied. Numerical results are presented on the anomalous relaxation of radial temperature gradients in the presence of shearless Cantori partial barri- ers. Also, numerical evidence of non-local effective radial temperature transport in chaotic fields is presented. Going beyond purely parallel transport, the LG method is generalized to include finite perpendicular diffusivity, and the problem of temperature flattening inside a magnetic island is studied.
