Nonlinear symmetry breaking in electron temperature gradient driven turbulence
Plasma Physics
2020-06-01 v1 Computational Physics
Abstract
Nonlinear symmetry breaking may occur in systems with two or more states whose linear dynamics displays certain symmetries, one of which is preferred nonlinearly. We have identified a regime of electron temperature gradient (ETG) instabilities in a tokamak plasma with circular concentric flux surfaces that has its largest growth rate at a finite ballooning angle, establishing a symmetry that is nonlinearly broken to favor one sign for the ballooning angle. This is the first example of nonlinear symmetry breaking in simulations of a drift instability in the absence of externally imposed flow shear or asymmetry in the plasma column.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2005.14581,
title = {Nonlinear symmetry breaking in electron temperature gradient driven turbulence},
author = {Salomon Janhunen and Gabriele Merlo and Frank Jenko and Alexey Gurchenko and Evgeniy Gusakov and Timo Kiviniemi},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2005.14581},
year = {2020}
}
Comments
7 pages, 7 figures, 1 table; submitted to Physics of Plasmas