Plasma Physics Seminar ( Phys 769)

G.R. Tynan and C.H. Holland,   Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, UCSD Observation of shear layer formation from drift turbulence in a cylindrical plasma device An azimuthally symmetric velocity shear layer is observed to form during the development of collisional drift turbulence in a cylindrical plasma device that has no obvious sources of angular momentum. Linear stability analysis shows that the shear layer cannot be unstable, implying that this structure is driven nonlinearly from the turbulence. Recent measurements show that the shear layer is sustained against ion-neutral flow drag and ion viscous damping by the turbulent Reynolds stress. The results provide a simple experimental platform to test the hypothesis that drift turbulence in magnetized plasmas can spontaneously organize into ordered shear flow states.