Abstract

An analytical dispersion relation is derived which shows that, in toroidal plasmas, zonal flows can be spontaneously excited via modulations in the radial envelope of a single-n coherent drift wave, with n the toroidal mode number. Predicted instability features are verified by 3D global gyrokinetic simulations of the ion-temperature-gradient mode. Nonlinear equations for mode amplitudes demonstrate saturation of the linearly unstable pump wave and bursting behavior in the drift-wave intensity and zonal flows.

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