Novel dipole trapped spheromak configuration

Abstract

We report the observation and characterization of a spheromak formed in the Swarthmore Spheromak Experiment (SSX) and trapped in a simple dipole magnetic field. The spheromak is studied in the prolate (tilt unstable) 0.4 m diameter, L= 0.6 m length copper flux conserver in SSX. This configuration is stable to the tilt, despite the prolate flux conserver. The spheromak is characterized by a suite of magnetic probe arrays for magnetic structure B(r,t), ion Doppler spectroscopy for T i and flow, interferometry for n e , and soft X-ray analysis for T e . Three dimensional MHD simulations of this configuration verify its gross stability. © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2007.