Drift waves and transport

TLDR: In this paper, a wealth of information obtained from quasistationary laboratory experiments for plasma confinement is reviewed for drift waves driven unstable by density gradients, temperature gradients and trapped particle effects.

Abstract: Drift waves occur universally in magnetized plasmas producing the dominant mechanism for the transport of particles, energy and momentum across magnetic field lines. A wealth of information obtained from quasistationary laboratory experiments for plasma confinement is reviewed for drift waves driven unstable by density gradients, temperature gradients and trapped particle effects. The modern understanding of Bohm transport and the role of sheared flows and magnetic shear in reducing the transport to the gyro-Bohm rate are explained and illustrated with large scale computer simulations. The types of mixed wave and vortex turbulence spontaneously generated in nonuniform plasmas are derived with reduced magnetized fluid descriptions. The types of theoretical descriptions reviewed include weak turbulence theory, Kolmogorov anisotropic spectral indices, and the mixing length. A number of standard turbulent diffusivity formulas are given for the various space-time scales of the drift-wave turbulent mixing.