EXPERIMENTS ON ALFVEN-WAVE PROPAGATION

Technical Report · Wed May 10 04:00:00 EDT 1961

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/4018172· OSTI ID:4018172

Wilcox, J. M.; DeSilva, A. W.; Cooper, III, W. S.

The propagation of torsional hydromagnetic (Alfven) waves in a cylindrical H plasma is discussed. The hydromagnetic waveguide consists of a Cu cylinder 86 cm long and 15 cm in diameter, filled with H to a pressure of 100 mu and immersed in a uniform axial magnetic field of 16 ' kgauss. The waveguide is filled with plasma by a type of switch-on ionizing wave that produces a high degree of ionization (80 to 100%) and a temperature of about 10,000 deg K. Ion densities were measured with an accuracy of about plus or minus 15% by observing with a monochromator the profiles of the first three Balmer lines and comparing with a more exact theory of Stark broadening developed by Griem, Kolb, and Shen. The ion density decreases by a factor of three in 300 mu sec because of recombination and diffusion losses. (auth)

• Research Organization: California Univ., Berkeley, CA (US). Lawrence Radiation Lab.
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-48
• NSA Number: NSA-15-025299
• OSTI ID: 4018172
• Report Number(s): UCRL-9613
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

ATOMIC MODELS
CIRCUITS
CONFIGURATION
COPPER
CYLINDERS
DIFFUSION
ELECTRONS
ENERGY LEVELS
EXCITATION
HIGH TEMPERATURE
HYDROGEN
HYDROMAGNETIC WAVES
ION RECOMBINATION
IONIZATION
IONS
LOSSES
MAGNETIC FIELDS
MAGNETOHYDRODYNAMICS
MEASURED VALUES
MICROWAVES
ORBITS
PHYSICS
PLASMA
TRANSIENTS
WAVEGUIDES