Phys. Rev. Lett. 85, 5336–5339 (2000)Generation and Stability of Zonal Flows in Ion-Temperature-Gradient Mode TurbulenceReceived 18 August 2000; published in the issue dated 18 December 2000 We address the mechanisms underlying zonal flow generation and stability in turbulent systems driven by the electrostatic ion-temperature-gradient (ITG) mode. In the case of zonal flow stability, we show the poloidal flows typical of numerical simulations become unstable when they exceed a critical level. Near marginal stability of the linear ITG mode, the system can generate zonal flows that are sufficiently weak to remain stable and sufficiently strong to suppress the linear ITG mode. This stable region corresponds to the parameter regime of the nonlinear Dimits up-shift. © 2000 The American Physical Society URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.85.5336
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.85.5336
PACS:
52.35.Ra, 52.35.Kt, 52.65.Ff
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