Vorticity Flow Stabilization of Magnetized Plasmas

TL;DR

This paper presents exact solutions for magnetized plasma flows with vorticity and temperature gradients, demonstrating stability changes with flow speed, and applies these findings to stabilize a z-pinch discharge.

Contribution

It introduces new exact solutions for vorticity-containing magnetized plasma flows and analyzes their stability under different flow regimes, including thermomagnetic effects.

Findings

Solutions unstable at subsonic speeds become stable at supersonic speeds.

Thermomagnetic currents modify plasma stability properties.

Application to z-pinch shows potential for improved stabilization.

Abstract

Exact solutions of a magnetized plasma in a vorticity containing shear flow for constant temperature are presented. This is followed by the modification of these solutions by thermomagnetic currents in the presence of temperature gradients. It is shown that solutions which are unstable for a subsonic flow, are stable if the flow is supersonic. The results are applied to the problem of vorticity shear flow stabilization of a linear z-pinch discharge.