ABSTRACT
Magnetized inhomogeneous plasma can sustain a low frequency electrostatic wave type called “drift-waves” because they propagate in the direction of the electron diamagnetic drift. The driving mechanism is the pressure gradient perpendicular to the externally imposed magnetic field. Historically, the waves were identified as low frequency fluctuations, located near the edge of the plasma column in linear plasma devices. The basic features of electrostatic drift waves can be described by a simple model. The expense for this simplicity is that the result that the waves are linearly stable. This is in contradiction with observations where the waves are found to be spontaneously excited due to linear plasma instability. The use of a fluid model (rather than a kinetic model) imposes some self-evident limitations on the results. However, also the basic assumption of electrostatic waves limits the parameter range of the validity of the results.
