Generation of field-reversed configurations via neutral beam injection

April 2025 | T. Roche | Nature Communications | Paper

We report evidence of successful generation of field-reversed configuration plasmas by neutral beam injection. This is achieved by trapping the steady state beams in an initial seed plasma, hence providing a direct source of toroidally directed energetic ion current and increase plasma …

A Statistical Analysis of Disruptions in C-2W

October 2024 | B. Sporer | APS DPP 2024 | Poster

In TAE’s C-2W machine*, a high-beta field-reversed configuration (FRC) is sustained within a magnetic mirror. Various mechanisms can cause rapid (<1 ms) collapse of the high-beta FRC state into a lower-beta mirror state, herein referred to as a plasma disruption.

Stabilization of the Alfven-ion cyclotron instability through short plasmas: Fully kinetic simulations in a high-beta regime

October 2023 | B. Nicks | Physics of Plasmas | Paper

The Alfven-ion cyclotron (AIC) mode is an instability that can be driven in magnetized plasmas with anisotropic pressure. Its chief deleterious effect is the driving of enhanced pitch-angle scattering of ions