Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Scaling studies of spheromak formation and equilibrium

1998; American Institute of Physics; Volume: 5; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1063/1.872632

1527-2419

C. G. R. Geddes, T. W. Kornack, M. R. Brown,

Solar and Space Plasma Dynamics

Formation and equilibrium studies have been performed on the Swarthmore Spheromak Experiment (SSX). Spheromaks are formed with a magnetized coaxial plasma gun and equilibrium is established in both small (dsmall=0.16 m) and large (dlarge=3dsmall=0.50 m) copper flux conservers. Using magnetic probe arrays it has been verified that spheromak formation is governed solely by gun physics (in particular the ratio of gun current to flux, μ0Igun/Φgun) and is independent of the flux conserver dimensions. It has also been verified that equilibrium is well described by the force free condition ∇×B=λB (λ=constant), particularly early in decay. Departures from the force-free state are due to current profile effects described by a quadratic function λ=λ(ψ). Force-free SSX spheromaks will be merged to study magnetic reconnection in simple magnetofluid structures.