title: Observation of centrifugally driven interchange instabilities in a plasma confined by a magnetic dipole.
abstract: Centrifugally driven interchange instabilities are observed in a laboratory plasma confined by a dipole magnetic field. The instabilities appear when an equatorial mesh is biased to drive a radial current that causes rapid axisymmetric plasma rotation. The observed instabilities are quasicoherent in the laboratory frame of reference; they have global radial mode structures and low azimuthal mode numbers, and they are modified by the presence of energetic, magnetically confined electrons. Results from a self-consistent nonlinear simulation reproduce the measured mode structures.
authors.affiliation: Department of Applied Physics and Applied Mathematics Columbia University, New York, New York 10027, USA. b1187@columbia.edu
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Levitt
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Maslovsky
authors.forename: M E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Mauel