Nonintrinsic ambipolar diffusion in turbulence theory

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Abstract
Ambipolar flow in a turbulent plasma is investigated by combining a WKB treatment of the waves with a turbulent collision operator resulting from either quasilinear theory or certain renormalized turbulence theories. If the wave momentum has a flow from outgoing waves, then particle diffusion is not intrinsically ambipolar, and the time variation of the electric potential profile is determined by the turbulent spectrum. However, in most cases of practical interest, as in the drift-wave problem, this effect is small; and in steady state, equal rates of stochastic diffusion are predicted for electrons and ions.