Radial propagation of turbulence in tokamaks

It is shown in this paper that a turbulence propagation can be due to toroidal or non linear mode coupling. An analytical analysis indicates that the toroidal coupling acts through a convection while the non linear effects induce a diffusion. Numerical simulations suggest that the toroidal propagation is usually the fastest process, except perhaps in some highly turbulent regimes. The consequence is the possibility of non local effects on the fluctuation level and the associated transport. (authors). 7 figs., 19 refs