Skin Effect and Anomalous Resistivity Accompanying Turbulent Heating

Abstract

In turbulent heating experiments the electrical resistivity is anomalously large, once turbulence has developed. But before turbulent levels build up in a dense, collisionless plasma, the high conductivity can cause a skin effect that impedes current penetration. We find that this skin effect has an influence on the onset of current-driven instabilities and on the ultimate heating. Low levels of residual turbulence before heating are found to play a role in the rate of current penetration.