Diamagnetic "bubble" equilibria in linear traps

TL;DR

This paper explores diamagnetic 'bubble' equilibria in linear plasma traps at high beta, analyzing their formation, properties, and potential for compact fusion reactors with improved confinement.

Contribution

It introduces a new equilibrium state called diamagnetic 'bubble' in linear traps and analyzes its properties and implications for fusion reactor design.

Findings

Diamagnetic bubbles can significantly expand plasma radius or alter flux distribution.

The confinement time scales as the geometric mean of parallel and perpendicular confinement times.

Potential for constructing compact fusion reactors with lengths of a few tens of meters.

Abstract

The plasma equilibrium in a linear trap at $\beta\approx 1$ (or above the mirror-instability threshold) under the topology-conservation constraint evolves into a kind of diamagnetic "bubble". This can take two forms: either the plasma body greatly expands in radius while containing the same magnetic flux, or, if the plasma radius is limited, the plasma distribution across flux-tubes changes, so that the same cross-section contains a greatly reduced flux. If the magnetic field of the trap is quasi-uniform around its minimum, the bubble can be made roughly cylindrical, with radius much larger than the radius of the corresponding vacuum flux-tube, and with non-paraxial ends. Then the effective mirror ratio of the diamagnetic trap becomes very large, but the cross-field transport increases. The confinement time can be found from solution of the system of equilibrium and transport equations and is shown to be $\tau_E\approx\sqrt{\tau_\parallel\tau_\perp}$. If the cross-field confinement is not too degraded by turbulence, this estimate in principle allows construction of relatively compact fusion reactors with lengths in the range of a few tens of meters. In many ways the described here diamagnetic confinement and the corresponding reactor parameters are similar to those claimed by the FRCs.