English

Wave-kinetic approach to zonal-flow dynamics: recent advances

Plasma Physics 2021-03-17 v2 Fluid Dynamics

Abstract

Basic physics of drift-wave turbulence and zonal flows has long been studied within the framework of wave-kinetic theory. Recently, this framework has been re-examined from first principles, which has led to more accurate yet still tractable "improved" wave-kinetic equations. In particular, these equations reveal an important effect of the zonal-flow "curvature" (the second radial derivative of the flow velocity) on dynamics and stability of drift waves and zonal flows. We overview these recent findings and present a consolidated high-level picture of (mostly quasilinear) zonal-flow physics within reduced models of drift-wave turbulence.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2101.04160,
  title  = {Wave-kinetic approach to zonal-flow dynamics: recent advances},
  author = {Hongxuan Zhu and I. Y. Dodin},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2101.04160},
  year   = {2021}
}

Comments

Paper BI2 6, Bull. Am. Phys. Soc. 65 (2020)

R2 v1 2026-06-23T22:02:07.570Z