A Self-Organization in Plasmas

Abstract

The problem of the formaton of spatially ordered structures called “coherent modes” in plasmas is of significant interest for the nonlinear theory of anomalous plasma transport. The existence of a coherent mode is expected to have a strong effect on the particle and heat transport properties in plasmas. The experimental observatios of an edge plasma turbulence in the CALTECH TOKAMAK by Zweben & Gould (1983) show a transition from turbulently unstable to stable coherent mode at high neutral filling pressure.1 There seems to be a transition between turbulent and coherent modes. We can find the large-scale vortices in the fluid turbulence and Great Red Spot in the atmosphere of Jupiter thought to be a stable monopole of nonlinear solitary vortex like a one-dimensional soliton. Let us call them roughly “ coherent (solitary)modes ”. Montgomery and his group have made an extensive study of self-organization in the relaxation process on the field of plasma physics (1978).2 Solitary vortex solutions have been extensively studied in a specific inviscid condition neglected instability; Larichev & Reznik(1976),3 Meiss & Horton(1983),4 Pavlenko & Petviashvili(1984),5 Mikhailovskii et al.(1984),6 Shukla et al.(1985),7 Morrison & Hazeltine(1985),8 and Moriguchi & Nozaki(1992).9 Makino, Kamimura and Taniuti (1981)10 numerically have shown that the stable properties of solitary vortices which are two-dimensional, localized, steady and translating solutions of the Hasegawa-Mima equation(1978).11 A localized vortex seems to comprise a self-organized state. Hasegawa reviewed a self-organization processes in the case of non-dissipative systems and discussed that the relationship between the onset of chaos and self-organization in a soliton system as well as in some localized vortex solutions (1985).12