Wigner–Moyal analysis of drift-wave turbulence as a quantumlike plasma

Supplementary materials

• Movie 1 (supplement to Fig. 3):  Zonostrophic instability and its nonlinear saturation in a regime close to geometrical optics (q = 0.4). Shown are the evolution of the zonal flow velocity U versus y and the drift-wave Wigner function W as a function of (y, p_y) at two values of p_x.
  
  
• Movie 2 (supplement to Fig. 3):  Zonostrophic instability and predator-prey oscillations at the following nonlinear stage in a regime beyond geometrical optics (q = 1.2). Shown are the evolution of the zonal flow velocity U versus y and the drift-wave Wigner function W as a function of (y, p_y) at two values of p_x. The structure of W is more complicated than in the geometrical-optics limit and contains substantial regions of negative W, which is inconsistent with the geometrical-optics interpretation of W as a probability distribution.
  
  
• Movie 3 (supplement to Fig. 5):  Zonal-flow attenuation via the tertiary instability and predator-prey oscillations at the following nonlinear stage. Shown are the evolution of the zonal flow velocity U versus y and the drift-wave Wigner function W as a function of (y, p_y). Notice the complex structure of W, including substantial regions of negative W, which is inconsistent with the geometrical-optics interpretation of W as a probability distribution.