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COOPERATIVE PHENOMENA
The effects of interacting particles acting collectively, rather than individually. Includes plasma oscillations, turbulence, and instabilities. (Plasmas are distinguished from collections of individual particles in that they exhibitcooperative phenomena in which the plasma participates as a unified entity.) Early fusion researchers who devised fusion schemes based upon theories where plasmas acted as merely a collection of individual particles (and therefore sought to confine only individual particles) often found themselves frustrated at the capacity of plasmacooperative phenomena (such as magnetohydrodynamic instabilities) to thwart their efforts.