MODELING STRONG TURBULENCE EXPERIMENTS WITH LONG-RANGE CORRELATIONS

In strong Langmuir turbulence collective correlations affect the proba bility distribution P(E) of the electric microfield in a stationary, t urbulent plasma. Extending previous work to include long-range correla tions but not dynamics over lengths much greater than lambda(D) yields a characteristic distribution P(E) is-proportional-to E(d-1) exp(-E2/ [E2]), with d the dimensionality of the electric field, and [E2] propo rtional to the square of the correlated particle density. This suggest s modeling strong turbulence experiments with a maximally entropic, th ermal-like wave distribution of elevated temperature, determined by th e amplitude and scale of long-range correlations. Implications for rec ent experiments show agreement between measurements for electric field s, microwave power emitted, and the packing fraction of beam-driven tu rbulence. Relaxation of the electric fields also yields useful informa tion.