An alternative approach to the determination of scaling law expressions for the L–H transition in Tokamaks utilizing classification tools instead of regression

A new approach to determine the power law expressions for the threshold between the H and L mode of confinement is presented. The method is based on two powerful machine learning tools for classification: neural networks and support vector machines. Using as inputs clear examples of the systems on either side of the transition, the machine learning tools learn the input–output mapping corresponding to the equations of the boundary separating the confinement regimes. Systematic tests with synthetic data show that the machine learning tools provide results competitive with traditional statistical regression and more robust against random noise and systematic errors. The developed tools have then been applied to the multi-machine International Tokamak Physics Activity International Global Threshold Database of validated ITER-like Tokamak discharges. The machine learning tools converge on the same scaling law parameters obtained with non-linear regression. On the other hand, the developed tools allow a reduction of 50% of the uncertainty in the extrapolations to ITER. Therefore the proposed approach can effectively complement traditional regression since its application poses much less stringent requirements on the experimental data, to be used to determine the scaling laws, because they do not require examples exactly at the moment of the transition.