Although collisional drift waves in a sheared slab configuration are linearly damped, it is found that the corresponding turbulence is self-sustaining if initialized at nonlinear amplitude. The influence of the free-energy source represented by the temperature and density gradients on the turbulent system involving bidirectional spectral energy transfer is responsible for this change of regime. Several important features of tokamak edge fluctuations are reproduced by these single-rational-surface nonlinear dynamics. As a result, drift-wave turbulence must still be considered as an underlying dynamic of anomalous transport in tokamak edges.

• Received 6 July 1990

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.65.3289