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Dynamics of a triple inverse pinch

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 March 2009

P. J. Baum ,
A. Bratenahl  and
M. Cowan
P. J. Baum
Affiliation:
Physics Department and Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics, University of California Riverside, California 92502
A. Bratenahl
Affiliation:
Physics Department and Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics, University of California Riverside, California 92502
M. Cowan
Affiliation:
Sandia Laboratories, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87115
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Abstract

Experiments show that plasma may be temporarily confined in a potential well created by three symmetrically spaced inverse pinches. X-type neutral points form at each of the three points of first contact of the inverse pinches and these three neutral points act as flux switches impulsively transferring flux into a central confinement region. The confinement is terminated by a transition to anomalous resistivity at the centre of the device resulting in rapid annihilation of the confining flux by resistive dissipation. The subsequent magnetic field pattern is much more like the vacuum field having only one hyperbolic neutral point.

The plasma configuration can probably be made stable for longer periods of time and should also be of interest for studies of interactions between laser light and a plasma in a state of microturbulence.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Plasma Physics , Volume 15 , Issue 2 , April 1976 , pp. 259 - 267
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1976

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References

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