Signature of a universal statistical description for drift-wave plasma turbulence

Journal Article · Mon Nov 15 00:00:00 EST 2010 · Physics of Plasmas

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3505824· OSTI ID:21531931

Anderson, Johan; Xanthopoulos, Pavlos ^[1]

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1. Max-Planck-Institut fuer Plasmaphysik, IPP-Euratom Association, Teilinstitut Greifswald, D-17491 Greifswald (Germany)

This letter provides a theoretical interpretation of numerically generated probability density functions (PDFs) of intermittent plasma transport events. Specifically, nonlinear gyrokinetic simulations of ion-temperature-gradient turbulence produce the time series of heat flux that manifestly exhibit non-Gaussian PDFs with enhanced tails. It is demonstrated that, after the removal of autocorrelations, the numerical PDFs can be matched with predictions from a fluid theoretical setup based on the instanton method. This result points to a universality in the modeling of intermittent stochastic process offering a predictive capability.

• OSTI ID: 21531931
• Journal Information: Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 17, Issue 11; Other Information: DOI: 10.1063/1.3505824; (c) 2010 American Institute of Physics; ISSN 1070-664X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
ION TEMPERATURE
PLASMA
PLASMA SIMULATION
PROBABILITY DENSITY FUNCTIONS
STOCHASTIC PROCESSES
TEMPERATURE GRADIENTS
TURBULENCE
WAVE PROPAGATION
FUNCTIONS
SIMULATION