(TH2/1) Secondary Instability in Drift Wave Turbulence as a Mechanism for
Avalanche and Zonal Flow Formation
P. H. Diamond1), S. Champeaux1),
M. Malkov1), A. Das1)2), I. Gruzinov1),
M. N. Rosenbluth1), C. Holland1),
B. Wecht1), A. Smolyakov3),
F. L. Hinton4), Z. Lin5), T. S. Hahm5)
1) University of California, San Diego, La Jolla,
CA 92093-0319 USA
2) Permanent Address: Institute For Plasma Research, Bhat,
Gandhinagar 382428 India
3) University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK S7N 5E2, Canada
4) General Atomics, San Diego, CA 92138-5608 USA
5) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, Princeton, NJ 08543-0451
Abstract. We report on recent developments in the theory of secondary
instability in drift-ITG turbulence. Specifically, we explore secondary
instability as a mechanism for avalanche formation. A theory of radially
extended streamer cell formation and self-regulation is presented. Aspects
of streamer structure and dynamics are used to estimate the variance of the
drift-wave induced flux. The relation between streamer cell structures and
the avalanche concept is discussed, as are the implications of our results
for transport modeling.
IAEA 2001
