Abstract
The paper discusses a possible energy transformation that leads to the acceleration of fast ions and electrons. In plasma-focus discharges that occur during deuterium filling, which have a maximum current of about 1 MA, the accelerated deuterons produce fast fusion neutrons and fast electrons hard X-ray emissions. Their total energy, which is of the order of several kilojoules, can be delivered by the discharge through a magnetic dynamo and self-organization to the ordered plasma structures that are formed in a pinch during the several hundreds of nanoseconds of the pinch implosion, stagnation, and evolution of instabilities. This energy is finally released during the decay of the ordered plasma structures in the volume between the anode face and the umbrella front of the plasma and current sheath in the form of induced electric fields that accelerate fast electrons and ions.
Highlights
Fusion-interest magnetized plasmas, which are produced in Z-pinch and dense plasma-focus (PF) devices,1–10 have parameters that are convenient for the detailed study of their evolution in a millimeter scale with nanosecond resolution
In plasma-focus discharges that occur during deuterium filling, which have a maximum current of about 1 MA, the accelerated deuterons produce fast fusion neutrons and fast electrons hard X-ray emissions
Their total energy, which is of the order of several kilojoules, can be delivered by the discharge through a magnetic dynamo and selforganization to the ordered plasma structures that are formed in a pinch during the several hundreds of nanoseconds of the pinch implosion, stagnation, and evolution of instabilities
Summary
Fusion-interest magnetized plasmas, which are produced in Z-pinch and dense plasma-focus (PF) devices, have parameters that are convenient for the detailed study of their evolution in a millimeter scale with nanosecond resolution. It is possible to explain the existence of highdensity gradients inside the structures analyzed using a flow of closed currents These features observed in plasmoids might be explained by the appearance of internal currents and magnetic fields in spheromak-like structures that have toroidal and poloidal currents.. The acceleration of fast electrons and ions is usually correlated with the disruption of the constriction, formation, and decay of plasmoids probably containing currents in filamentary forms, which may produce local high-energy density and collision-less conditions.6 The decay of such ordered structures can lead to the fast transformation of magnetic energy into the kinetic energy of fast particles through the induction of a strong local electric field..
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