The spontaneous generation of shear flows in turbulent plasmas is discussed. In the case of the Hasegawa–Mima model of turbulence, mean shear (S=dVy/dx) generation minimizes the classical Ginzburg–Landau free‐energy functional F=∫ dx(−D1S2+D2S2x+BS4). The process of shear flow generation thus closely resembles the mean‐field theory of a second‐order phase transition.

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