Statistical theory of subcritically-excited strong turbulence in inhomogeneous plasmas. I

A statistical description is developed for a self-sustained subcritical turbulence in inhomogeneous plasmas. Interchange mode in the presence of inhomogeneous magnetic field, which reveals a submarginal strong turbulence, is considered. Nonlinear dispersion relation is extended to a Langevin equation for a dressed test mode, in which nonlinear interactions are kept as renormalized drag and random self noise. Based upon the assumption that the random noise has a faster time scale, the solutions are obtained for the fluctuation level, decorrelation rate, auto- and cross-correlation functions and spectrum. They are expressed as nonlinear functions of non-equilibrium parameters like gradient. Extended fluctuation-dissipation theorem (Einstein relation) is described as statistical relations. Then the Langevin equation is reformulated into a Fokker-Planck equation of the probability distribution function. The steady state probability function is solved. Imposing the constraint of the self-noise, the power-law distribution with respect to the fluctuation amplitude is obtained in the tail of the distribution function.