Study of the Mechanism for Fast Ion Heating in the GOL-3 Multimirror Magnetic Confinement System

Journal Article · Wed Jun 15 04:00:00 EDT 2005 · Plasma Physics Reports

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1134/1.1947331· OSTI ID:20718001

Arzhannikov, A V; Astrelin, V T; Burdakov, A V; Ivanov, I A; Koidan, V S; Kuznetsov, S A; Mekler, K I; Polosatkin, S V; Postupaev, V V; Rovenskikh, A F; Sinitskii, S L; Sulyaev, Yu S; Shoshin, A A ^[1]

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1. Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics, Siberian Division, Russian Academy of Sciences, pr. Akademika Lavrent'eva 11, Novosibirsk, 630090 (Russian Federation)

Results are presented from experimental studies of ion heating in the GOL-3 device. The experiments were carried out in a multimirror configuration with a local magnetic well. It was found that, during the injection of a relativistic electron beam, a decrease in the local density of the beam in a magnetic well, which is proportional to the decrease in the strength of the longitudinal magnetic field, results in the formation of a short plasma region with a low electron temperature. The measured longitudinal gradient of the plasma pressure corresponds to an electron temperature gradient of {approx}2-3 keV/m. Axially nonuniform heating of the plasma electrons gives rise to the macroscopic motion of the plasma along the magnetic field in each cell of the multimirror confinement system. The mixing of the counterpropagating plasma flows inside each cell leads to fast ion heating. Under the given experimental conditions, the efficiency of this heating mechanism is higher than that due to binary electron-ion collisions. The collision and mixing of the counterpropagating plasma flows is accompanied by a neutron and {gamma}-ray burst. The measured ratio of the plasma pressure to the vacuum magnetic field pressure in these experiments reaches 0.2.

• OSTI ID: 20718001
• Journal Information: Plasma Physics Reports, Journal Name: Plasma Physics Reports Journal Issue: 6 Vol. 31; ISSN PPHREM; ISSN 1063-780X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
BEAM INJECTION HEATING
EFFICIENCY
ELECTRON BEAMS
ELECTRON TEMPERATURE
ELECTRON-ION COLLISIONS
ELECTRONS
GOL-3 DEVICE
ION TEMPERATURE
IONS
KEV RANGE
MAGNETIC CONFINEMENT
MAGNETIC FIELDS
MINIMUM-B CONFIGURATIONS
PLASMA BEAM INJECTION
PLASMA PRESSURE
RELATIVISTIC PLASMA
TEMPERATURE GRADIENTS