The role of coherent vorticity in turbulent transport in resistive drift-wave turbulence

Wouter J.T. Bos (1, 2) , Shinpei Futatani (3) , Sadruddin Benkadda (3) , Marie Farge (4) , Kai Schneider (2)

1 LMFA - Laboratoire de Mecanique des Fluides et d'Acoustique
2 M2P2 - Modélisation et Simulation Numérique (en mécanique des fluides)
3 PIIM - Physique des interactions ioniques et moléculaires
4 LMD - Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique (UMR 8539)

The coherent vortex extraction method, a wavelet technique for extracting coherent vortices out of turbulent flows, is applied to simulations of resistive drift-wave turbulence in magnetized plasma (Hasegawa-Wakatani system). The aim is to retain only the essential degrees of freedom, responsible for the transport. It is shown that the radial density flux is carried by these coherent modes. In the quasi-hydrodynamic regime, coherent vortices exhibit depletion of the polarization-drift nonlinearity and vorticity strongly dominates strain, in contrast to the quasiadiabatic regime.

Domains: Plasma Physics [physics.plasm-ph]

Wouter J.T. Bos, Shinpei Futatani, Sadruddin Benkadda, Marie Farge, Kai Schneider. The role of coherent vorticity in turbulent transport in resistive drift-wave turbulence. Physics of Plasmas, 2008, 15, 072305 (6 p.). ⟨10.1063/1.2956640⟩. ⟨hal-00442513⟩