Role of nonlinear toroidal coupling in electron temperature gradient turbulence

Journal Article · Sun May 15 04:00:00 EDT 2005 · Physics of Plasmas

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.1894766· OSTI ID:20736590

Lin, Z; Chen, L; Zonca, F ^[1]

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1. Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Irvine, California 92697 (United States)

Global gyrokinetic particle simulation and nonlinear gyrokinetic theory find that electron temperature gradient (ETG) instability saturates via nonlinear toroidal coupling, which is a nonlocal interaction in the wave vector space that transfers energy successively from unstable modes to damped modes preferentially with lower toroidal mode numbers. The electrostatic ETG turbulence is dominated by nonlinearly generated radial streamers. The length of the streamers scales with the device size, which is longer than the distance between mode rational surfaces and electron radial excursions. Both fluctuation intensity and transport level at saturation are independent of the streamer length, and are much smaller than the mixing length estimates.

• OSTI ID: 20736590
• Journal Information: Physics of Plasmas, Journal Name: Physics of Plasmas Journal Issue: 5 Vol. 12; ISSN PHPAEN; ISSN 1070-664X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
CHARGED-PARTICLE TRANSPORT
ELECTRON TEMPERATURE
FLUCTUATIONS
NONLINEAR PROBLEMS
PLASMA
PLASMA INSTABILITY
PLASMA SIMULATION
TEMPERATURE GRADIENTS
TURBULENCE