SHIP WAVES IN ROTATING PLASMA IN TOKAMAKS

Plasma rotation can lead to excitation of waves in the plasma by pertu rbations that have zero frequency in the laboratory frame. Drift Waves have minimum velocity threshold for excitation. Potential drift waves with k rho i less than or equal to 0.1 (k is the wave number, rho(i) is the ion cyclotron radius) excited at the edge and propagating towar d the plasma interior are used to explain some nonlocal properties of plasma transport observed experimentally in transitions from the low ( L) to high (H) confinement regime (L-H transitions). (C) 1995 American Institute of Physics.