CONFINEMENT OF HOT ION PLASMA WITH beta=0.6 IN THE GAS DYNAMIC TRAP

A so called vortex confinement of plasma in axially symmetric mirror device was studied. This recently developed approach enables to significantly reduce transverse particle and heat losses typically caused by MHD instabilities which can be excited in this case. Vortex confinement regime was established by application of different potentials to the radial plasma limiters and end-plates. As a result, the sheared plasma flow at periphery appears which wraps the plasma core. Experiments were carried out on the gas dynamic trap device, where hot ions with a mean energy of E-h approximate to 9 keV and the maximum density of energetic ions n(h)approximate to 5.10(19)m(-3) were produced by oblique injection of deuterium or hydrogen neutral beams into a collisional warm plasma with the electron temperature up to 250 eV and density n(w)approximate to 2.10(19)m(-3). Local plasma beta approaching 0.6 was measured. The measured transverse heat losses were considerably smaller than the axial ones. The measured axial losses were found to be in a good agreement with the results of numerical simulations. Recent experimental results support the concept of the neutron source based on the gas dynamic trap.