| |
 |
|
| |
Experiments with a Supported Dipole
| Author: | Mauel M.E. |
| Coauthor: | |
| Institution : | Columbia University |
| Abstract text: | For the first plasma studies in the Levitated Dipole Experiment
(LDX), the high-field superconducting floating coil will be
mechanically supported. Extensive investigations have already been
carried out in the Collisionless Terrella Experiment (CTX) where a
mechanically-supported, water-cooled electromagnet creates a steady
dipole field that traps and confines hot plasma. Some of the
equilibrium and dynamical behaviors seen in CTX may appear in LDX,
and this presentation is motivated by our predictions of the first
operation of LDX as extrapolations from CTX. Previous CTX
experiments have focused on understanding pressure-driven and
rotationally-driven interchange instabilities. These instabilities
have a global mode structure and cause intense nonlinear phase-space
mixing. Linear theory and self-consistent nonlinear simulation
appear to explain observations very well, including (i) detailed
features of the nonlinear structures formed during the interchange
process and (ii) the characteristics of the rotational interchange
mode that appears when the rapid toroidal rotation is induced by an
applied radial electric field. Other CTX experiments have
parameterized various plasma equilibria including the effects of
outer boundary shaping using applied vertical fields.
Acknowledging contributions of Dmitry Maslovsky and Ben Levitt (from
the CTX experiment) and Jay Kesner, Darren Garnier, and Alex Hansen
(from the LDX Team).
[1] B. Levitt, D. Maslovsky, M. Mauel, Phys. Plasmas, 9, (2002).
[2] D. Maslovsky, B. Levitt and M. E. Mauel,Phys. Rev. Lett.,
(2003); and Phys. Plasmas, (2003).
[3] H. P. Warren and M. E. Mauel, Phys. Rev. Lett., (1995); and
Phys. Plasmas (1996).
[4] B. Levitt, M. Mauel, D. Maslovsky, \"Observation of
centrifugally driven interchange instabilities in a laboratory
magnetic dipole,\'\' in preparation. |
|
|