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Title: Turbulent Transport of Trapped-Electron Modes in Collisionless Plasmas

Journal Article · · Physical Review Letters
;  [1]
  1. Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Irvine, California 92697 (United States)

Global gyrokinetic particle simulations of collisionless trapped-electron mode turbulence in toroidal plasmas find that electron heat transport exhibits a device size scaling with a gradual transition from Bohm to gyro-Bohm scaling. A comprehensive analysis of spatial and temporal scales shows that the turbulence eddies are predominantly microscopic because of zonal flow shearing, but the presence of mesoscale structures drives a nondiffusive component in the electron heat flux due to the weak nonlinear detuning of the precessional resonance that excites the linear instability.

OSTI ID:
21364628
Journal Information:
Physical Review Letters, Vol. 103, Issue 8; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.103.085004; (c) 2009 The American Physical Society; ISSN 0031-9007
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English