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Velocity shear stabilization of centrifugally confined plasma
1Institute for Plasma Research, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742, USA.
Physical Review Letters
|December 12, 2001
Abstract:
A magnetized, centrifugally confined plasma is subjected to a 3D MHD stability test. Ordinarily, the system is expected to be grossly unstable to "flute" interchanges of field lines. Numerical simulation shows though that the system is stable on account of velocity shear. This allows consideration of a magnetically confined plasma for thermonuclear fusion that has a particularly simple coil configuration.