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Updated: Jun 28, 2026

Magnetically Induced Rotating Rayleigh-Taylor Instability
Published on: March 3, 2017
Rotation of a strongly magnetized hydrogen plasma column determined from an asymmetric Balmer-beta spectral line with
A E Shumack1, V P Veremiyenko, D C Schram
1FOM-Institute for Plasma Physics Rijnhuizen, Association EURATOM-FOM, Trilateral Euregio Cluster, Nieuwegein, The Netherlands.
Abstract:
A potential buildup in front of a magnetized cascaded arc hydrogen plasma source is explored via E x B rotation and plate potential measurements. Plasma rotation approaches thermal speeds with maximum velocities of 10 km/s. The diagnostic for plasma rotation is optical emission spectroscopy on the Balmer-beta line. Asymmetric spectra are observed. A detailed consideration is given on the interpretation of such spectra with a two distribution model. This consideration includes radial dependence of emission determined by Abel inversion of the lateral intensity profile. Spectrum analysis is performed considering Doppler shift, Doppler broadening, Stark broadening, and Stark splitting.
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