# Emergent kink stability of a magnetized plasma jet injected into a transverse background magnetic field

## TL;DR

This study experimentally demonstrates that a sheared axial flow, induced by magnetic tension in a plasma jet within a transverse magnetic field, stabilizes the kink instability, highlighting a natural stabilization mechanism in magnetized plasma jets.

## Contribution

It provides the first experimental evidence that emergent sheared axial flow can stabilize kink modes in plasma jets injected into transverse magnetic fields.

## Key findings

- Sheared axial flow stabilizes the n=1 kink mode.
- Kink instability occurs without background magnetic field.
- Magnetic tension induces flow shear that stabilizes the jet.

## Abstract

We report experimental results on the injection of a magnetized plasma jet into a transverse background magnetic field in the HelCat linear plasma device at the University of New Mexico [M. Gilmore et al., J. Plasma Phys. 81, 345810104 (2015)]. After the plasma jet leaves the plasma-gun muzzle, a tension force arising from an increasing curvature of the background magnetic field induces in the jet a sheared axial-flow gradient above the theoretical kink-stabilization threshold. We observe that this emergent sheared axial flow stabilizes the n=1 kink mode in the jet, whereas a kink instability is observed in the jet when there is no background magnetic field presented.