Perturbative transport experiments in JET low or reverse magnetic shear plasmas

Perturbative transport experiments have been performed in JET low or reverse magnetic shear plasmas either in conditions of fully developed internal transport barrier (ITB) or during a phase where an ITB was not observed. Transient peripheral cooling was induced either by laser ablation or by shallow pellet injection, and the ensuing travelling cold pulse was used to probe the plasma transport in the electron and, for the first time, also in the ion channel. Cold pulses travelling through ITBs are observed to erode the ITB outer part, but, if the inner ITB portion survives, it strongly damps the propagating wave. The result is discussed in the context of proposed possible pictures for ITB formation. In the absence of an ITB, the cold pulse shows a fast propagation in the outer plasma half, which is consistent with a region of stiff transport, while in the inner half it slows down but shows the peculiar feature of amplitude growing while propagating. The data are powerful tests for the validation of theoretical transport models.