title: Inductive sustainment of a field-reversed configuration stabilized by shaping, magnetic diffusion, and finite-Larmor-radius effects.
abstract: Oblate field-reversed configuration (FRC) plasmas are sustained for up to 350 micros, or approximately 15 poloidal flux-confinement times, in the magnetic reconnection experiment. The diamagnetic equilibrium is maintained in argon plasmas as a balance of an inward pinch and outward diffusion. Numerical and analytic models show that the observed stability is provided by a combination of plasma shaping, magnetic diffusion, and finite-Larmor radius effects. FRCs formed with lighter ions, which benefit less from these stabilizing effects, succumb to rapid instability and cannot be sustained.
authors.affiliation: Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, Princeton University, P.O. Box 451 Princeton, New Jersey 08543, USA.
authors.forename: S P
authors.initials: SP
authors.lastname: Gerhardt
authors.forename: E V
authors.initials: EV
authors.lastname: Belova
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Yamada
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ji
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Inomoto
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ren
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: McGeehan