Quasicrystallization of Vortices in Drift-Wave Turbulence

The formation and dynamics of coherent vortices in the Hasegawa-Mima two-dimensional model of drift-wave turbulence is studied numerically. The effect of “vortex shielding” due to the presence of a characteristic length scale (ion Larmor radius ${\rho }_s$) leads to important differences between self-organization in drift-wave and Navier-Stokes fluid turbulence. While it may not be surprising that a finite deformation radius leads to the formation of coherent vortices, we show here that it also results in the appearance of long-range order in the system, i.e., the formation of a vortical “quasicrystal.”