Events on Monday, April 1st, 2019
- Plasma Physics (Physics/ECE/NE 922) Seminar
- Electrostatically driven helical plasma state
- Time: 12:05 pm
- Place: 2241 Chamberlin Hall
- Speaker: John Finn, Tibbar Plasma Technologies
- Abstract: I will describe a novel plasma state found in resistive MHD simulations. This state starts with a uniform applied axial magnetic field in a periodic cylinder and is driven electrostatically by helical electrodes. We focus on m=n=1. For sufficiently strong helical drive the mean field of the state has field line field line safety factor q(r) just above the pitch of the electrodes m/n=1 except near the edge, where q increases monotonically. This state is characterized as a single helicity Ohmic equilibrium with the helical symmetry of the applied field. This state is analyzed in terms of Pfirsch-Schlueter currents, flux conversion in helical geometry, and magnetic helicity. Possible applications to current drive in toroidal confinement devices and to DC-DC electrical transformers are discussed.
Collaborators: C. Akcay, R. Nebel and D. Barnes