Experimental study of fluctuations excited by a narrow temperature filament in a magnetized plasma

A systematic study is made of the spontaneous growth of fluctuations in temperature, density, and magnetic field in a narrow (on the order of the electron skin depth) field-aligned temperature filament embedded in a large magnetized plasma. Two broad classes of fluctuation (“low” and “high” frequency modes) have been identified and studied in detail. A high-frequency drift-Alfvén mode grows at frequencies about one tenth the ion gyrofrequency in the region of the filament where the temperature gradient is large. The measured radial profiles of the density and magnetic field fluctuations associated with this mode agree well with theoretical predictions. The high-frequency mode has been observed to exhibit several interesting nonlinear features, including steepening wave form, progression in azimuthal mode number, coupling to the low frequency mode with subsequent sideband generation, and eventually a transition to broad band turbulence. The nature of the low-frequency mode which has frequencies about one fiftieth of the ion gyrofrequency is less certain, but it has been identified as a spatially localized, azimuthally symmetric mode consisting primarily of temperature fluctuations. Both the high and low-frequency modes give rise to electron heat transport at rates in excess of the classical values.