Tangled magnetic fields, often coexisting with an ordered mean field, have a major impact on turbulence and momentum transport in many plasmas, including those found in the solar tachocline and magnetic confinement devices. We present a novel mean field theory of potential vorticity mixing in β-plane magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) and drift wave turbulence. Our results show that mean square stochastic fields strongly reduce Reynolds stress coherence. This decoherence of potential vorticity flux due to stochastic field scattering leads to suppression of momentum transport and zonal flow formation. A simple calculation suggests that the breaking of the shear-eddy tilting feedback loop by stochastic fields is the key underlying physics mechanism. A dimensionless parameter that quantifies the increment in power threshold is identified and used to assess the impact of stochastic field on the L-H transition. We discuss a model of stochastic fields as a resisto-elastic network.
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April 2021
Research Article|
April 07 2021
Potential vorticity transport in weakly and strongly magnetized plasmas
Special Collection:
Papers from the 62nd Annual Meeting of the APS Division of Plasma Physics
Chang-Chun Chen
;
Chang-Chun Chen
a)
1)
Department of Physics, University of California San Diego
, La Jolla, California 92093, USA
a)Author to whom correspondence should be addressed: [email protected]
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Patrick H. Diamond
;
Patrick H. Diamond
b)
1)
Department of Physics, University of California San Diego
, La Jolla, California 92093, USA
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Rameswar Singh
;
Rameswar Singh
1)
Department of Physics, University of California San Diego
, La Jolla, California 92093, USA
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Steven M. Tobias
Steven M. Tobias
2)
Department of Applied Mathematics, University of Leeds
, Leeds LS2 9JT, United Kingdom
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a)Author to whom correspondence should be addressed: [email protected]
b)
Electronic mail: [email protected]
Note: This paper is part of the Special Collection: Papers from the 62nd Annual Meeting of the APS Division of Plasma Physics.
Phys. Plasmas 28, 042301 (2021)
Article history
Received:
December 21 2020
Accepted:
March 09 2021
Citation
Chang-Chun Chen, Patrick H. Diamond, Rameswar Singh, Steven M. Tobias; Potential vorticity transport in weakly and strongly magnetized plasmas. Phys. Plasmas 1 April 2021; 28 (4): 042301. https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0041072
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