Unstable Drift Waves in a Sheared Magnetic Field

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Abstract
Electrostatic collisionless drift waves in a sheared magnetic field have been studied extensively with use of particle-code simulations. When the shear is strong, we have found that the plasma is dominated by spatially uncorrelated small-amplitude oscillations with frequencies close to those prescribed by the local dispersion relation. With a weaker shear, spatially correlated large-amplitude waves with a well-defined frequency have been observed. Theoretically predicted eigenmodes are not the dominant feature of the fluctuation spectrum.