Correlation between non-ambipolar currents and divertor heat loads in the COMPASS tokamak

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

Electric current flowing onto the divertor of the COMPASS tokamak influences its heat loading. The current measured when a Langmuir probe is grounded to the divertor gives a local measurement of this heat loading, which, according to the classical theory of the Debye sheath, should be enhanced with respect to the case of locally ambipolar currents. The comparison of the calculated heat flux by probes with infrared thermography, when the influence of non-ambipolar currents is not considered, is grossly wrong; when the theoretical effect of non-ambipolar currents is included, however, the agreement is very good.