Electromagnetic transport components and sheared flows in drift-Alfven turbulence

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    Abstract

    Results from three-dimensional numerical simulations of drift-Alfven turbulence in a toroidal geometry with sheared magnetic field are presented. The simulations show a relation between self-generated poloidal shear flows and magnetic field perturbations. For large values of the plasma beta we observe an increase of the transport if the viscous damping of the self-generated shear flows is absent. This behavior is in contrast to the standard argument that sheared flows suppress turbulence and transport via a decorrelation mechanism. An explanation of this behavior in terms of the transport related to magnetic flutter is proposed. The characteristics of the ExB flux are investigated using probability density distribution functions (PDFs). Although they are not Gaussian, no signs of algebraic tails in the PDFs are observed. The PDFs of the pointwise transport are found to agree well with a folded Gaussian, while the PDFs of the spatially averaged transport are in good agreement with an extreme value distribution. (C) 2003 American Institute of Physics.
    Original languageEnglish
    JournalPhysics of Plasmas
    Volume10
    Issue number10
    Pages (from-to)4016-4028
    ISSN1070-664X
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2003

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