HELICOIDAL SYSTEM FOR AXIAL PLASMA PUMPING IN LINEAR TRAPS

A new type of axial pumping or confining system for plasma devices is proposed. It is based on E x B plasma rotation in a nonuniform helical magnetic field. In the rotating reference frame the helical ripples of the magnetic field look like traveling waves propagating along the system axis. Due to parallel plasma viscosity and/or collisions with locally trapped particles, the plasma as a whole will aquire axial momentum. Related processes are observed in tokamaks as transformations between poloidal and toroidal rotation components.