Inductive sustainment of a field-reversed configuration stabilized by shaping, magnetic diffusion, and finite-Larmor-radius effects.
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.
Gerhardt
S P
SP
Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, Princeton University, P.O. Box 451 Princeton, New Jersey 08543, USA.
Belova
E V
EV
Yamada
M
M
Ji
H
H
Inomoto
M
M
Ren
Y
Y
McGeehan
B
B