Full-f gyrokinetic simulation including kinetic electrons

A new hybrid kinetic electron model is developed for electrostatic full-f gyrokinetic simulations. The model is verified by computing the neoclassical transport and the linear ion temperature gradient driven trapped electron mode (ITG-TEM) stability. Impacts of kinetic electrons on the ITG turbulence are investigated, and a new saturation mechanism due to corrugated density profiles, which are generated by passing electrons transport, and new contributions from the field stress and the ion radial current to the toroidal angular momentum balance are found. Rotation changes and density peaking in the electron heating modulation experiment are qualitatively reproduced by a long time scale full-f ITG-TEM simulation over ∼ 20 ms, in which electron heating modulation is applied. The mechanism of the rotation changes are explained by the ion radial current, which is reversed between ITG and TEM phases.