There has been remarkable progress made in the research of structure formation by turbulence in nonequilibrium plasmas. One of the highlights has been the physics of zonal flow and drift wave turbulence in toroidal plasmas. Extensive theoretical as well as computational studies have revealed the various mechanisms in the system of turbulence and zonal flows, as highlighted in the recent review paper `Zonal flows in plasma—a review' by P H Diamond et al (2005 Plasma Phys. Control. Fusion} 47 R35).There has also been increasing research in experimental studies of zonal flows, geodesic acoustic modes, and the generation of global electric field by turbulence. In recognition of this a cluster Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion occasionally publishes a small collection of articles on a specific topic. These special sections highlight a specific area of research that is of importance to the journal either as a new or growing research area. The subjects are selected by the Editorial Board and managed by a Guest Editor, Professor Itoh in this case. of 15 papers on `Experimental studies of zonal flow and turbulence' is presented in this issue of Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion.Each paper in this special cluster describes the present research status and new scientific knowledge/results on the authors' machine involved, on the subject of experimental studies of zonal flows, electric field and nonlinear interactions with turbulence (including studies of Reynolds-Maxwell stresses, etc). Readers of, and contributors to, Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion have been facing a new phase of plasma physics, with the expanding application of plasma physics to the explosive growth of our knowledge of the astronomical, space and laboratory plasmas, and the approach of ITER. The evolution of modern plasma physics into the new arena is backed up by extensive research as illustrated by this cluster of papers and review papers. We believe that this group of articles will stimulate further efforts to develop new knowledge into systematic understanding.
非平衡等离子体中湍流引起的结构形成研究已取得显著进展。其中一个亮点是环形等离子体中带状流与漂移波湍流的物理机制。大量理论与计算研究揭示了湍流与带状流系统中多种机理，正如P H Diamond等人近期综述文章《Zonal flows in plasma—a review》（2005年《Plasma Phys. Control. Fusion》47卷R35）所强调的。此外，带状流、测地声模以及湍流引起的全局电场产生的实验研究也日益增多。为此，《Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion》期刊不定期推出专题栏目，集中刊载某一特定主题的小型论文合集。这些专题聚焦于对期刊而言具有重要性的新兴或发展中的研究领域。专题主题由编辑委员会选定，并由特邀编辑负责管理，本期特邀编辑为伊藤教授。本专题共收录15篇论文，主题为“带状流与湍流的实验研究”，刊载于本期《Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion》。每篇论文均介绍了作者所在装置上关于带状流、电场及与湍流非线性相互作用（包括雷诺-麦克斯韦应力等研究）的当前研究现状与新的科学成果。《Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion》的读者和投稿者正面临等离子体物理的新阶段：等离子体物理的应用不断扩展，涵盖天体物理、空间物理和实验室等离子体，并伴随对聚变装置ITER的探索。现代等离子体物理向新领域的发展得到了广泛研究的支撑，本专题论文合集即为明证。我们相信，这组文章将激励进一步的研究工作，把零散的新知识发展为系统性的理解。