Nonlinear evolution of a strongly sheared cross-field plasma flow

A study is presented of the nonlinear evolution of a magnetized plasma in which a localized electron cross-field flow is present. The peak velocity of the flow is denoted by V0; LE represents the flow's shear scale length; and the regime ρe3ωLH, the system exhibits significant anomalous viscosity (typically an order of magnitude larger than that due to Coulomb collisions), which increases as the shear frequency is increased. As ωs is reduced below ωLH, shear effects are no longer dominant and a smooth transition takes place in which the system dynamics is governed by the short wavelength (on the order of ρe) lower-hybrid drift instability