Excitation of Zonal Flow by Drift Waves in Toroidal Plasmas

Technical Report · Sun Oct 31 23:00:00 EST 1999

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/14454· OSTI ID:14454

Chen, L ^[1]; White, R; Lin, Z

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1. Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory

An analytical dispersion relation is derived which shows that, in toroidal plasmas, zonal flows can be spontaneously excited via modulations in the radial envelope of a single-n coherent drift wave, with n the toroidal mode number. Predicted instability features are verified by 3D global gyrokinetic simulations of the ion-temperature-gradient mode. Nonlinear equations for mode amplitudes demonstrate saturation of the linearly unstable pump wave and bursting behavior in the drift-wave intensity and zonal flows.

• Research Organization: Princeton Plasma Physics Lab., NJ (US)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Energy Research (ER) (US)
• DOE Contract Number: AC02-76CH03073
• OSTI ID: 14454
• Report Number(s): PPPL-3378; AC02-CHO-3073
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
AMPLITUDES
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
DISPERSION RELATIONS
EXCITATION
PLASMA DRIFT
PLASMA INSTABILITY
PLASMA WAVES
SATURATION
THREE-DIMENSIONAL CALCULATIONS
TOROIDAL CONFIGURATION