title: Plasma response to a varying degree of stress.
abstract: We report experimental evidence of a seamless transition between three distinct modes in a magnetized plasma with a transverse sheared flow as the ratio of the ion gyroradius to the shear scale length (a measure of shear magnitude) is varied. This was achieved using a dual plasma configuration in a laboratory experiment, where a sheared flow oriented perpendicular to a background magnetic field is localized at the boundary of the plasmas. This confirms the basic theory that plasma is unstable to transverse velocity shear in a broad frequency and wavelength range. The experiment characterizes the compression or relaxation of boundary layers often generated in a variety of laboratory and space plasma processes.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Auburn University, Auburn, Alabama 36849, USA.
authors.forename: Ami M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: DuBois
authors.forename: Edward
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Thomas
authors.forename: William E
authors.initials: WE
authors.lastname: Amatucci
authors.forename: Gurudas
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Ganguli