Force-Free Magnetic Relaxation in Driven Plasmas

Journal Article · Fri Jun 10 04:00:00 EDT 2005 · Physical Review Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.94.225004· OSTI ID:20696361

Tang, X Z ^[1]; Boozer, A H ^[2]

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1. Theoretical Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545 (United States)
2. Department of Applied Physics and Applied Mathematics, Columbia University, New York, New York 10027 (United States)

Taylor relaxation in a driven plasma with normal magnetic field intercepting the boundary is described by the Jensen-Chu theory, which predicts infinite energy and helicity barriers that constrain the accessible relaxed states to system scale. For a partially relaxed force-free (j=kB) plasma where k is a field line constant, nonlinearity regularizes the Jensen-Chu singularities and new branches of relaxed state become accessible, such as the flipped spheromak and other high k states.

• OSTI ID: 20696361
• Journal Information: Physical Review Letters, Journal Name: Physical Review Letters Journal Issue: 22 Vol. 94; ISSN 0031-9007; ISSN PRLTAO
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
HELICITY
MAGNETIC FIELDS
NONLINEAR PROBLEMS
PLASMA
PLASMA CONFINEMENT
RELAXATION
SINGULARITY
SPHEROMAK DEVICES