Numerical computation of collisionless drift wave turbulence

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Abstract
Collisionless drift waves are studied by means of nonlinear numerical simulations in a three-dimensional sheared slab geometry. The electron dynamics is described by a drift-kinetic equation, and the ions are treated as a cold fluid. The energy spectra of the turbulent fluctuations and the dependence of the resulting anomalous transport on various dimensionless plasma parameters are investigated. It is shown that this model resolves fundamental contradictions between experimental results and linear drift wave theory, especially the dependence of turbulent transport on radial position but also the scaling with ion mass.