Experimental evidence of a zonal magnetic field in a toroidal plasma.
A zonal magnetic field is found in a toroidal plasma. The magnetic field has a symmetric bandlike structure, which is uniform in the toroidal and poloidal directions and varies radially with a finite wavelength of mesoscale, which is analogous to zonal flows. A time-dependent bicoherence analysis reveals that the magnetic field should be generated by the background plasma turbulence. The discovery is classified as a new kind of phenomenon of structured magnetic field generation, giving insight into phenomena such as dipole field generation in rotational planets.
Fujisawa
A
A
National Institute for Fusion Science, Oroshi-cho, Toki-shi 509-52, Japan.
Itoh
K
K
Shimizu
A
A
Nakano
H
H
Ohshima
S
S
Iguchi
H
H
Matsuoka
K
K
Okamura
S
S
Minami
T
T
Yoshimura
Y
Y
Nagaoka
K
K
Ida
K
K
Toi
K
K
Takahashi
C
C
Kojima
M
M
Nishimura
S
S
Isobe
M
M
Suzuki
C
C
Akiyama
T
T
Nagashima
Y
Y
Itoh
S-I
SI
Diamond
P H
PH