Investigation of universal plasma instabilities

It is the purpose of this program to carry out an experimental investigation of universal or drift plasma instabilities in a thermal plasma device or Q machine with the hope that the results will be useful in evaluating various instability loss mechanisms in connection with the diffusion of plasma across magnetic fields in controlled thermonuclear devices. The effect of instabilities on plasma transport across magnetic fields is perhaps one of the most pressing problems in plasma confinement. Two of the important questions in this field of research at the present time are the relative roles of collisional and collisionless instabilities and the importance of linear and nonlinear phenomena, especially in connection with plasma turbulence.