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We investigate the pressure and temperature dependence of the lattice dynamics of the underdoped, stoichiometric, high-temperature superconductor YBa2Cu4O8 by means of Raman spectroscopy and ab initio calculations. This system undergoes a reversible pressure-induced structural phase transition around 10 GPa to a collapsed orthorhombic structure that is well reproduced by the calculation. The coupling of the B1g-like buckling phonon mode to the electronic continuum is used to probe superconductivity. In the low pressure phase, self-energy effects through the superconducting transition renormalize this phonon, and the amplitude of this renormalization strongly increases with pressure. Whereas our calculation indicates that this mode's coupling to the electronic system is only marginally affected by the structural phase transition, the aforementioned renormalization is completely suppressed in the high pressure phase, demonstrating that under hydrostatic pressures higher than 10 GPa, superconductivity in YBa2Cu4O8 is greatly weakened or obliterated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High-β_{θe} (a ratio of the electron thermal pressure to the poloidal magnetic pressure) steady-state long-pulse plasmas with steep central electron temperature gradient are achieved in the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak. An intrinsic current is observed to be modulated by turbulence driven by the electron temperature gradient. This turbulent current is generated in the countercurrent direction and can reach a maximum ratio of 25% of the bootstrap current. Gyrokinetic simulations and experimental observations indicate that the turbulence is the electron temperature gradient mode (ETG). The dominant mechanism for the turbulent current generation is due to the divergence of ETG-driven residual flux of current. Good agreement has been found between experiments and theory for the critical value of the electron temperature gradient triggering ETG and for the level of the turbulent current. The maximum values of turbulent current and electron temperature gradient lead to the destabilization of an m/n=1/1 kink mode, which by counteraction reduces the turbulence level (m and n are the poloidal and toroidal mode number, respectively). These observations suggest that the self-regulation system including turbulence, turbulent current, and kink mode is a contributing mechanism for sustaining the steady-state long-pulse high-β_{θe} regime.