TY - JOUR
T1 - Spontaneous Formation of a Plasma Hole in a Rotating Magnetized Plasma
T2 - A Giant Burgers Vortex in a Compressible Fluid
AU - Nagaoka, Kenichi
AU - Okamoto, Atsushi
AU - Yoshimura, Shinji
AU - Kono, Mitsuo
AU - Tanaka, Masayoshi Y.
PY - 2002
Y1 - 2002
N2 - Spontaneous formation of a cylindrical density cavity, or ”plasma hole,” has been observed in a rotating magnetized plasma. Density of the plasma hole is one-tenth of that of ambient plasma and is bounded by a steep transition layer of the order of several ion Larmor radii. The flow velocity field associated with the plasma hole is experimentally determined, exhibiting a monopole vortical structure. It is found that the vorticity distribution is localized near the center of the hole and is identified as a Burgers vortex. This is the first experimental observation of a Burgers vortex in a plasma.
AB - Spontaneous formation of a cylindrical density cavity, or ”plasma hole,” has been observed in a rotating magnetized plasma. Density of the plasma hole is one-tenth of that of ambient plasma and is bounded by a steep transition layer of the order of several ion Larmor radii. The flow velocity field associated with the plasma hole is experimentally determined, exhibiting a monopole vortical structure. It is found that the vorticity distribution is localized near the center of the hole and is identified as a Burgers vortex. This is the first experimental observation of a Burgers vortex in a plasma.
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U2 - 10.1103/PhysRevLett.89.075001
DO - 10.1103/PhysRevLett.89.075001
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:45849155500
VL - 89
JO - Physical Review Letters
JF - Physical Review Letters
SN - 0031-9007
IS - 7
ER -