Non-perturbative measurement of cross-field thermal diffusivity reduction at the O-point of 2/1 neoclassical tearing mode islands in the DIII-D tokamak

Neoclassical tearing modes (NTMs) often lead to the decrease of plasma performance and can lead to disruptions, which makes them a major impediment in the development of operating scenarios in present toroidal fusion devices. Recent gyrokinetic simulations predict a decrease of plasma turbulence and cross-field transport at the O-point of the islands, which in turn affects the NTM dynamics. In this paper, a heat transport model of magnetic islands employing spatially non-uniform cross-field thermal diffusivity (χ_⊥) is presented. This model is used to derive χ_⊥ at the O-point from electron temperature data measured across 2/1 NTM islands in DIII-D. It was found that χ_⊥ at the O-point is 1 to 2 orders of magnitude smaller than the background plasma transport, in qualitative agreement with gyrokinetic predictions. As the anomalously large values of χ_⊥ are often attributed to turbulence driven transport, the reduction of the O-point χ_⊥ is consistent with turbulence reduction found in recent experiments. Finally, the implication of reduced χ_⊥ at the O-point on NTM dynamics was investigated using the modified Rutherford equation that predicts a significant effect of reduced χ_⊥ at the O-point on NTM saturation.