Drift waves

Short description: Type of magnetohydrodynamic instability

In plasma physics, a drift wave is a type of collective excitation that is driven by a pressure gradient within a magnetised plasma, which can be destabilised by differences between ion and electron motion (then known as drift-wave instability or drift instability). The equations which describe these waves possess a number of solutions, including ion-acoustic solitary waves,[1] and are roughly analogous to modons.[2]

The drift wave typically propagates across the pressure gradient and is perpendicular to the magnetic field. It can occur in relatively simple configurations such as in a column of plasma with a non-uniform density but a straight magnetic field.[3] Drift wave turbulence is responsible for the transport of particles, energy and momentum across magnetic field lines.[4]

The characteristic frequency associated with drift waves involving electron flow[5] is given by ω*=k⊥(−kBTeeB0∇n0n0), where k⊥ is the wavenumber perpendicular to the pressure gradient of the plasma, kB is the Boltzmann constant, Te is the electron temperature, e is the elementary charge, B0 is the background magnetic field and ∇n0 is the number density gradient of the plasma.

## References

1. ↑ Meiss, J. D.; Horton, W. (1983-04-01). "Solitary drift waves in the presence of magnetic shear". The Physics of Fluids 26 (4): 990–997. doi:10.1063/1.864251. ISSN 0031-9171. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.864251.
2. ↑ Swaters, Gordon E. (1986-05-01). "Stability conditions anda prioriestimates for equivalent-barotropic modons". The Physics of Fluids 29 (5): 1419–1422. doi:10.1063/1.865658. ISSN 0031-9171. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.865658.
3. ↑ Goldston, Robert J.; Rutherford, Paul H. (1995). "21. Drift waves and instabilities". Introduction to plasma physics. Bristol, UK: Institute of Physics. ISBN 0-7503-0325-5. OCLC 33079555.
4. ↑ Horton, W. (1999). "Drift waves and transport" (in en). Reviews of Modern Physics 71 (3): 735–778. doi:10.1103/RevModPhys.71.735. ISSN 0034-6861. Bibcode: 1999RvMP...71..735H. https://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/RevModPhys.71.735.
5. ↑ Chen, Francis F. (2016). "6.8 Resistive Drift Waves". Introduction to plasma physics and controlled fusion (3rd ed.). Cham. ISBN 978-3-319-22309-4. OCLC 933392530.

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