Instability of an electron-plasma shear layer in an externally imposed strain flow

Hurst, N. C.; Danielson, J. R.; Dubin, D. H.  E.; Surko, C. M.

doi:10.1063/1.5138924

Title: Instability of an electron-plasma shear layer in an externally imposed strain flow

Journal Article · Wed Apr 01 00:00:00 EDT 2020 · Physics of Plasmas

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5138924· OSTI ID:1608030

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

The E x B shear instability of a two-dimensional (2D) filament (i.e., a thin, rectangular strip perpendicular to the magnetic field) of magnetized pure electron plasma is investigated experimentally in the presence of an externally imposed strain flow. Data are acquired using a specialized Penning–Malmberg trap in which strain flows can be applied in 2D by biasing segmented electrodes surrounding the plasma. The E x B drift dynamics are well-described by the Drift-Poisson equations, which are isomorphic to the 2D Euler equations describing ideal fluids. Thus, the experimental results correspond to the Rayleigh instability of a shear layer in a 2D ideal fluid, where the electron density is analogous to the fluid vorticity. Shear layers are prepared by stretching initially axisymmetric electron vortices using a strong, applied strain flow. The data at early times are in quantitative agreement with a linear model which extends Rayleigh’s work to account for the influence of an external strain flow. In the presence of weak strain, the system approximately maintains a phase relationship that corresponds to an instantaneous Rayleigh eigenmode. The instability develops into the nonlinear regime later in time and at smaller spatial scales as the strain rate is increased. A secondary vortex pairing instability is observed, but it is suppressed when the strain-to-vorticity ratio exceeds roughly 0.025. In this way, vorticity transport perpendicular to the filament is diminished due to the applied strain.

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

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

Grant/Contract Number:: SC0016532; SC0018236; SC0014664

OSTI ID:: 1608030

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1607950

Journal Information:: Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 27, Issue 4; ISSN 1070-664X

Publisher:: American Institute of Physics (AIP)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Cited by: 4 works

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Title: Instability of an electron-plasma shear layer in an externally imposed strain flow

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