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Extended possibility of an active control of co-axially nested shear plasma formation due to electron cyclotron heatings

Part of: Solved and Unsolved problems in Plasma Physics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 September 2016

T. Cho  and
M. Hirata
T. Cho*
Affiliation:
Research Institute of Material Science, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-0034, Japan
M. Hirata
Affiliation:
Plasma Research Centre, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8577, Japan
*
†Email address for correspondence: tcho3@ybb.ne.jp
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Abstract

Coaxially nested intense $E\times B$ sheared flow realized an upgraded stable mirror plasma regime. After such an external control of high vorticity formation due to electron cyclotron heating, significantly unstable plasmas appeared. Thereby, the associated cross-field transport caused a crash of plasmas. Its generalized physics and interpretation could prepare or extend to another possibility of stability in a field-reversed configuration (FRC), for instance. Such underlying physics bases of vorticity formation were essentially or partially performed in tokamaks and stellarators (solved problems). Nevertheless, it remains to be seen whether this mirror-based experimental evidence is applicable or not to open ended FRC devices. This open issue may give a solution of one of unsolved important problems, and possibly provide more generalized and externally controllable opportunities for not only FRC but wider plasma confinement improvements.

Keywords

magnetized plasmasplasma confinementplasma instabilities
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Plasma Physics , Volume 82 , Issue 5 , October 2016 , 595820501
Copyright
© Cambridge University Press 2016 

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