How mesoscopic staircases condense to macroscopic barriers in confined plasma turbulence

Ashourvan, Arash; Diamond, P. H.

doi:10.1103/physreve.94.051202

How mesoscopic staircases condense to macroscopic barriers in confined plasma turbulence

Journal Article · Thu Nov 17 23:00:00 EST 2016 · Physical Review E

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/physreve.94.051202· OSTI ID:1536401

Ashourvan, Arash ^[1]; Diamond, P. H. ^[2]

Univ. of California, San Diego, CA (United States). Center for Momentum Transport and Flow Organization. Center for Energy Research. Center for Astrophysics and Space Sciences (CASS). Dept. of Physics; DOE/OSTI
Univ. of California, San Diego, CA (United States). Center for Momentum Transport and Flow Organization. Center for Energy Research. Center for Astrophysics and Space Sciences (CASS). Dept. of Physics

This Rapid Communication sets forth the mechanism by which mesoscale staircase structures condense to form macroscopic states of enhanced confinement. Density, vorticity, and turbulent potential enstrophy are the variables for this model. Formation of the staircase structures is due to inhomogeneous mixing of (generalized) potential vorticity (PV). Such mixing results in the local sharpening of density and vorticity gradients. When PV gradients steepen, the density staircase structure develops into a lattice of mesoscale “jumps” and “steps,” which are, respectively, regions of local gradient steepening and flattening. The jumps then merge and migrate in radius, leading to the emergence of a new macroscale profile structure, so indicating that profile self-organization is a global process, which may be described by a local, but nonlinear model. This work predicts and demonstrates how mesoscale condensation of staircases leads to global states of enhanced confinement.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Univ. of California, San Diego, CA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Fusion Energy Sciences (FES)

Grant/Contract Number:: FG02-04ER54738; SC0008378

OSTI ID:: 1536401

Journal Information:: Physical Review E, Journal Name: Physical Review E Journal Issue: 5 Vol. 94; ISSN 2470-0045

Publisher:: American Physical Society (APS)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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