EQUIPARTITION AND TRANSPORT IN 2-DIMENSIONAL ELECTROSTATIC TURBULENCE

Turbulent equipartition is investigated for the nonlinear evolution of pressure driven flute modes of a plasma in an inhomogeneous magnetic field. The Rayleigh-Taylor instability is recovered by linear stabilit y analysis, and occurs when the pressure profile is more peaked than t he profile of the magnetic field. Numerical solutions of the model equ ations on a bounded domain with sources and sinks show that the flux-d riven turbulent fluctuations give rise to up-gradient transport, a ''p inch flux,'' of heat or particles. The averaged equilibrium density an d temperature profiles approach n similar to B and T similar to B-2/3, as predicted by turbulent equipartition.