On the radial eigenmode structure of drift wave instability with inhomogeneous damping in cylindrical plasmas

Plasma flows can be driven by turbulent stresses from excited modes in magnetized plasmas. Our recent numerical simulation of resistive drift wave turbulence in a linear device has shown that the radial inhomogeneity of the neutral density affects azimuthal flow generation by changing the phase structure of the most unstable eigenmodes. Eigenmode analyses show that the mode structure has a complex Bessel-type function shape in the central region of the plasma, and the imaginary part arises from the radial inhomogeneity of the damping term caused by ion-neutral collisions. The amplitude of turbulent stress is proportional to the inhomogeneity under a marginally stable condition. Global structural formation is an important factor for determining the plasma turbulent state, and this result clearly shows that several kinds of radial background distributions, the plasma and neutral densities in this case, can influence the global structures. (author)