TY - JOUR

T1 - Recent results on high-β plasma confinement studies in the Gas Dynamic Trap

AU - Shmigelsky, Evgeniy A.

AU - Lizunov, Andrej A.

AU - Meyster, Andrey K.

AU - Pinzhenin, Egor I.

AU - Solomakhin, Alexander L.

AU - Yakovlev, Dmitry V.

PY - 2024/5/2

Y1 - 2024/5/2

N2 - This paper is devoted to experimental studies of plasma confinement with high relative pressure in the Gas Dynamic Trap (BINP, Novosibirsk). In previous high- confinement studies a maximum local was achieved in the fast-ion turning point, contributed to by a beam-driven population of fast ions with an anisotropic distribution function. In this study the axial magnetic field profile was modified to bring the turning points closer to one another, which effectively increased the energy density of plasma and pushed the value higher. Experiments were performed for two non-standard magnetic configurations, where the axial fast-ion confinement region length was reduced by 1.5 and 2 times compared with the standard configuration. The average values of over the plasma central cross-section were found to be 0.1 and 0.18, respectively, for the two configurations, with the latter value significantly exceeding the of the standard configuration, in which the previous record was set. Moreover, halving the fast ion confinement region almost doubled the D-D fusion proton flux from the trap centre compared with the standard configuration. The electron temperature in both new magnetic configurations was only slightly smaller than in the standard configuration. In addition, an effect of Alfvén ion-cyclotron instability (AICI) development on the pressure in the turning points is discussed. Presumably, with some decrease in magnetic field an evolving AICI does not result in considerable pressure axial redistribution, so the pressure maximum is in the turning points' vicinity despite the instability.

AB - This paper is devoted to experimental studies of plasma confinement with high relative pressure in the Gas Dynamic Trap (BINP, Novosibirsk). In previous high- confinement studies a maximum local was achieved in the fast-ion turning point, contributed to by a beam-driven population of fast ions with an anisotropic distribution function. In this study the axial magnetic field profile was modified to bring the turning points closer to one another, which effectively increased the energy density of plasma and pushed the value higher. Experiments were performed for two non-standard magnetic configurations, where the axial fast-ion confinement region length was reduced by 1.5 and 2 times compared with the standard configuration. The average values of over the plasma central cross-section were found to be 0.1 and 0.18, respectively, for the two configurations, with the latter value significantly exceeding the of the standard configuration, in which the previous record was set. Moreover, halving the fast ion confinement region almost doubled the D-D fusion proton flux from the trap centre compared with the standard configuration. The electron temperature in both new magnetic configurations was only slightly smaller than in the standard configuration. In addition, an effect of Alfvén ion-cyclotron instability (AICI) development on the pressure in the turning points is discussed. Presumably, with some decrease in magnetic field an evolving AICI does not result in considerable pressure axial redistribution, so the pressure maximum is in the turning points' vicinity despite the instability.

KW - plasma confinement

KW - plasma instabilities

UR - https://www.scopus.com/record/display.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85193007245&origin=inward&txGid=032cf9849abbf348d50b1425b543991e

UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/8324fb01-53aa-365b-bbc5-fa34b6e20690/

U2 - 10.1017/S0022377824000515

DO - 10.1017/S0022377824000515

M3 - Article

VL - 90

JO - Journal of Plasma Physics

JF - Journal of Plasma Physics

SN - 0022-3778

IS - 2

M1 - 975900206

ER -