MERCREDI 23 MARS 2011
14 heures
Salle Séminaire 5
Centre de Physique Théorique
Marseille-Luminy

Chris J. McDevitt
Laboratoire de Physique des Plasmas, Ecole Polytechnique, 91128 Palaiseau Cedex

Title: Turbulent momentum transport in strongly magnetized plasmas

Abstract: The spontaneous generation of mean flows in tokamak devices plays a
fundamental role in the regulation and stabilization of numerous
plasma instabilities. Within this work, gyrokinetics is utilized in
order to identify means through which small scale microturbulence may
drive mean flows in strongly magnetized plasmas. This analysis is
facilitated via the identification of analogues of the familiar Taylor
Identity [1], which provide a transparent means of relating the flux
of gyrokinetic quantities to physical stresses. Quasi-linear as well
as weak turbulence methods are employed in order to compute the
structure of the turbulent stress tensor. Numerous off-diagonal
components of the turbulent stress tensor are derived, thus
identifying multiple mechanisms through which plasma microturbulence
may drive mean flows.

[1] G. I. Taylor Phil. Trans. R. Soc. London, Ser. A 215, 1 (1915)