High-beta plasma confined in poloidal magnetic fields.
Abstract
Experiments on rotating plasmas provide methods for studying part of the important problems of plasma equilibrium and stability at high beta values. This report describes investigations on high-density plasmas being performed by means of probe and Rogowski coil recordings:
(i) Appreciable forces can be generated in the plasma, corresponding to equivalent beta values as high as about 20%. The magnetic field lines are in some cases "pushed out" radially by a considerable fraction of the distance from the axis of symmetry. (ii) The observed plasma behaviour agrees roughly with that predicted by a simple classical model. (iii) The plasma is at least macroscopically stable in respect to flute and ballooning modes, and has an outer boundary being sharply defined by the conditions imposed by a limiter and a surrounding neutral gas blanket.- Publication:
-
Physica Scripta
- Pub Date:
- 1974
- DOI:
- 10.1088/0031-8949/9/1/009
- Bibcode:
- 1974PhyS....9...53L