PPPL-3807 is available in pdf format (848 KB).

Strange Attractors in Drift Wave Turbulence

Author: J.L.V. Lewandowski

Date of PPPL Report: April 2003

Submitted to: Physics of Plasmas

A multi-grid part-in-cell algorithm for a shearless slab drift wave model with kinetic electrons is presented. The algorithm, which is based on an exact separation of adiabatic and nonadiabatic electron responses, is used to investigate the presence of strange attractors in drift wave turbulence. Although the simulation model has a large number of degrees of freedom, it is found that the strange attractor is low-dimensional and that it is strongly affected by dissipative (collisional) effects.