A mixed SOC-turbulence model for nonlocal transport and Lévy-fractional Fokker–Planck equation

Abstract

The phenomena of nonlocal transport in magnetically confined plasma are theoretically analyzed. A hybrid model is proposed, which brings together the notion of inverse energy cascade, typical of drift-wave- and two-dimensional fluid turbulence, and the ideas of avalanching behavior, associable with self-organized critical (SOC) behavior. Using statistical arguments, it is shown that an amplification mechanism is needed to introduce nonlocality into dynamics. We obtain a consistent derivation of nonlocal Fokker-Planck equation with space-fractional derivatives from a stochastic Markov process with the transition probabilities defined in reciprocal space. The hybrid model observes the Sparre Andersen universality and defines a new universality class of SOC.