title: Resonant drift-wave coupling modified by nonlinear separatrix dissipation.
abstract: Resonant drift-wave coupling experiments characterize a new dissipative coupling term caused by a trapping separatrix. The system is a cylindrical pure-electron plasma with an axial trapping separatrix generated by an applied theta-symmetric wall voltage. The resonant decay of m_{theta}=2 diocotron modes into m_{theta}=1 trapped-particle diocotron modes is measured and compared to parametric mode coupling theory. Experiments quantify the traditional nonlinear mode coupling term, plus a new separatrix-generated dissipative coupling term which is not yet characterized theoretically.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, University of California at San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093, USA.
authors.forename: A A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Kabantsev
authors.forename: T M
authors.initials: TM
authors.lastname: O'Neil
authors.forename: Yu A
authors.initials: YA
authors.lastname: Tsidulko
authors.forename: C F
authors.initials: CF
authors.lastname: Driscoll