Bulletin of the American Physical Society
64th Annual Meeting of the APS Division of Plasma Physics
Volume 67, Number 15
Monday–Friday, October 17–21, 2022; Spokane, Washington
Session TP11: Poster Session VII: In-Person, Hall A (9:30-11:00am) and Virtual Poster Presentations (11:15am-12:30pm)
MFE: FRC, RFPs etc
ICF: Fast Ignition; Diagnostics; Computational; Laser Plasma Interactions
FUND: Computation
9:30 AM - 12:30 PM
Thursday, October 20, 2022
Room: Exhibit Hall A and Online
Abstract: TP11.00064 : On the asymptotic equilibrium of a rapidly-rotating Mirror Plasma*
Presenter:
Ian G Abel
(IREAP, University of Maryland, College Park)
Author:
Ian G Abel
(IREAP, University of Maryland, College Park)
(2000) & PoP 12, 055704 (2005)] and initial theoretical analyses, the Centrifugal Mirror concept is being
further explored by the construction of the Centrifugal Mirror Fusion Experiment (CMFX) [C. Romero-Talamas,
this conference] at the University of Maryland. This prompts a deeper inquiry into the underlying confinement and
stability properties of centrifugal mirrors as a class of devices. Future, reactor-grade, centrifugal plasmas will operate
at high Mach numbers (M ≳ 5), which provides a potential expansion parameter for simplifying their physics.
In this work we present a class of axisymettric magnetic equilibria for these devices, derived in the rapidly-rotating
large-Mach-number limit. The prototypical equilibrium is comprised of a narrow layer of plasma and an exterior
vacuum field. In the layer, the equilbrium is characterised by the balance between centrifugal forces and magnetic
tension. We provide detailed expressions for the structure of the equilibrium in the plasma layer, and explore whether
further nested layers, driven by plasma pressure, can form. These equilibria exhibit many commonalities with equilibria
used for studying astrophysical disks. By exploring the coupling to the exterior vacuum solution we can study the
transition of these equilibria from mirror-like, where all the field lines are open, to FRC-like, where regions of closed
flux appear between the plasma and the symmettry axis. This may provide a hard limit on the rotation speed
achievable in future experiments. These equilibria naturally extend to a sequence of thin disks
spaced along the axial direction. Finally, we examine the stability of these equilibria and explore how more elongated
mirror configurations may naturally collapse into the thin disks presented here.
*This work was supported by ARPA-E Grant No. DE-AR0001270 as part of the BETHE program.
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