Stable, thermal equilibrium, large-amplitude, spherical plasma oscillations in electrostatic confinement devices

Journal Article · Wed Jul 01 00:00:00 EDT 1998 · Physics of Plasmas

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.872933· OSTI ID:636153

Barnes, D C; Nebel, R A ^[1]

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1. Applied Theoretical and Computational Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, B-259, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545 (United States)

The problem of large-amplitude spherical oscillations of an ion cloud in an Inertial Electrostatic Confinement (IEC) device is examined. It is shown that ion fluctuations of a Gaussian profile in a spherical, harmonic well are stable to all hydrodynamic modes, and stable oscillations about the oscillating equilibrium state may be damped by continuum damping. It is also shown that the ion state forms a thermal equilibrium, in spite of the orders of magnitude, density, and temperature changes during the oscillation cycle. Finally, a brief discussion of how to experimentally realize the required electron distributions for these oscillations is presented.

• OSTI ID: 636153
• Journal Information: Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 5, Issue 7; Other Information: PBD: Jul 1998
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION
PLASMA WAVES
OSCILLATIONS
INERTIAL CONFINEMENT
ELECTROSTATICS
THERMAL EQUILIBRIUM
HYDRODYNAMICS
PLASMA DENSITY
TEMPERATURE DISTRIBUTION
AMPLITUDES