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Up-gradient particle flux in a drift wave-zonal flow system

Creative Commons 'BY-NC-ND' version 4.0 license
Abstract

We report a net inward, up-gradient turbulent particle flux in a cylindrical plasma when collisional drift waves generate a sufficiently strong sheared azimuthal flow that drives positive (negative) density fluctuations up (down) the background density gradient, resulting in a steepening of the mean density gradient. The results show the existence of a saturation mechanism for drift-turbulence driven sheared flows that can cause up-gradient particle transport and density profile steepening.

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