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Flowing Magnetized Plasma Experiment: Progress & Plans
| Author: | Hsu S. C. |
| Coauthor: | Z. Wang, P. D. Beinke, C. W. Barnes, G. A. Wurden, T. P. Intrator |
| Institution : | Los Alamos National Laboratory |
| Abstract text: | The Flowing Magnetized Plasma (FMP) Experiment, funded internally by Los Alamos National Laboratory, has physics missions which are well-aligned to those of the ICC community. FMP can study fundamental aspects of magnetized plasma flow and astrophysical applications of such configurations, such as the dynamo effect and magnetorotational instability (MRI), in a unique parameter regime. Based on diamagnetic measurements, FMP has created high ? cylindrical plasmas (n_e ~ 2 × 10^13 cm^(-3), Te ~ 5 eV, B ~ 100 G) with Alfvén Mach number of order unity using a coaxial gun and vacuum chamber inherited from the old CTX spheromak program. First plasma was achieved in September, 2003, and since then we have been characterizing and optimizing plasma regimes and operation, as well as developing core diagnostics such as magnetic probes, flux loops, and electrostatic probes. At present, evidence for mode rotation has been observed in both fast camera images and magnetic probe signals, although the rotation appears to deviate from the expected azimuthal (E × B)_? speed (E_R from the coaxial gun and B_Z from external coils). However, in the near future, we plan to achieve better control of the rotation and its profiles using different types of biased electrodes. An overview of the experiment, physics goals, and early experimental data will be presented. |
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