High-β, Gas-Stabilized, Mirror-Confined Plasma
Abstract
A neutral-beam-sustained plasma in the 2XIIB mirror machine is stabilized by hydrogen gas ionized at one mirror. Peak plasma energy densities that exceed the energy density of the vacuum field (β^≡8n^DE¯DBvac2>~1) are achieved with deuterons of average energy E¯D~9 keV, peak density n^D~1.5×1014 cm-3, in a magnetic field Bvac=0.56 T. These high β's are sustained for the duration of gas and neutral-beam injection, with no evidence of a β limit.
- Publication:
-
Physical Review Letters
- Pub Date:
- November 1976
- DOI:
- 10.1103/PhysRevLett.37.1468
- Bibcode:
- 1976PhRvL..37.1468L
- Keywords:
-
- Gas Injection;
- Magnetic Mirrors;
- Magnetohydrodynamic Stability;
- Neutral Beams;
- Plasma Control;
- Plasma-Particle Interactions;
- Beam Currents;
- Cold Plasmas;
- Gas Ionization;
- High Temperature Plasmas;
- Hydrogen Ions;
- Magnetically Trapped Particles;
- Normal Density Functions;
- Plasma Physics