Inverse energy cascade correlated with turbulent-structure generation in toroidal plasma

We report the first experimental observation of the inverse energy cascade correlated with the generation of large turbulent structures. Spectral energy is nonlinearly transferred from the unstable region of the spectrum into large coherent structures and into broadband turbulence in agreement with theoretical expectations. These results are obtained by producing plasma in the H-1 heliac whose parameters allow a single-field, Hasegawa-Mima–type model to be used for the spectral energy transfer analysis.