On the confinement of a plasma by magnetostatic fields

Abstract

The plasma is treated as an assembly of classical particles having masses m+ and m_ and charges ±e. It is shown that if such a plasma is in thermodynamic equilibrium it is unaffected by a magnetostatic field. In particular, it cannot be confined by a magnetostatic field and at the same time be in equilibrium. In absence of collisions there exist stationary solutions for the magnetic field and the particle distribution in phase space such that the gas is confined. The solutions are self-consistent, meaning that the particle motions generate the field, which in turn maintains the particle distribution. However, this distribution may not be Maxwellian. As an example the linear pinch is treated. The fields, the particle number densities, and the current density are calculated for one particular case.