Resonant drift-wave coupling modified by nonlinear separatrix dissipation.
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.
Kabantsev
A A
AA
Department of Physics, University of California at San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093, USA.
O'Neil
T M
TM
Tsidulko
Yu A
YA
Driscoll
C F
CF