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Published on: January 9, 2014
Confinement of plasma along shaped open magnetic fields from the centrifugal force of supersonic plasma rotation
C Teodorescu1, W C Young, G W S Swan
1University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742, USA.
Abstract:
Interferometric density measurements in plasmas rotating in shaped, open magnetic fields demonstrate strong confinement of plasma parallel to the magnetic field, with density drops of more than a factor of 10. Taken together with spectroscopic measurements of supersonic E × B rotation of sonic Mach 2, these measurements are in agreement with ideal MHD theory which predicts large parallel pressure drops balanced by centrifugal forces in supersonically rotating plasmas.
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