Electron temperature diagnostics in the RFX reversed field pinch experiment

The paper presents an integrated approach to the problem of electron temper ature diagnostics of the plasma in a reversed field pinch. Three different methods, sampling different portions of the electron distribution function, are adopted, namely Thomson scattering, soft X-ray spectroscopy by pulse h eight analysis and filtered soft X-ray intensity ratio. A careful analysis of the different sources of systematic errors is performed and a novel stat istical approach is adopted to mutually validate the three independent meas urements. A satisfactory agreement is obtained over a large range of experi mental conditions, indicating that in the plasma core the energy distributi on function is well represented by a maxwellian.