Observation of self-organized FRC formation in a collisional-merging experiment
Tomohiko Asai, D. Kobayashi, T. Seki, Yasuaki Tamura, Tatsuhiro WATANABE, Naoto Sahara, Tsutomu Takahashi, Jordan Morelli, H. Gota, T. Roche, Richard Magee, Michl Binderbauer, T. Tajima, Michiaki Inomoto, Toshiki Takahashi
Abstract
Abstract Self-organized field-reversed configuration (FRC)-like formation was observed after the super-sonic/Alfvénic collisional merging of two FRCs in the FAT-CM device at Nihon University. In this experiment, two FRCs were generated initially in two separate field-reversed theta-pinch type formation regions. Those two formation regions are coaxially connected to opposite ends of a cylindrical confinement chamber. The formed FRCs are oppositely-translated and collide in the middle of the confinement chamber at super-sonic/Alfvénic velocity. During the collision, the merged plasmoid experiences destructive disturbance and loses its fast toroidal flow and characteristic FRC property of having a field-reversed magnetic configuration to become a magnetized plasma without ordered structure. After this dynamic collision, a magnetic configuration of FRC with fast toroidal rotation is self-organized within a few tens of microseconds. This observation indicates robustness of the extremely high-beta, simple magnetic configuration.