Reduction of inward momentum flux by damped eigenmodes

Abstract

The inward momentum flux driven by the off-diagonal pressure gradient in a fluid model for ion temperature gradient turbulence with large Richardson number is significantly reduced by the excitation of stable eigenmodes. This is accomplished primarily through the amplitude autocorrelation of the damped eigenmode, which, in the flux, directly counteracts the quasilinear contribution of the unstable eigenmode. Stable eigenmode cross correlations also contribute to the flux, but the symmetry of conjugate pairing of growing and damped eigenmodes leads to significant cancellations between cross correlation terms. Conjugate symmetry is a property of unstable wavenumbers but applies to the whole of the saturated state because damped eigenmodes in the unstable range prevent the spread of energy outside that range. The heat and momentum fluxes are nearly isomorphous when expressed in terms of the eigenmode correlations. Due to this similarity of form, the thermodynamic constraint, which keeps the heat flux outward...