Self-organized confinement by magnetic dipole: recent results from RT-1 and theoretical modeling

Abstract

Inhomogeneous magnetic field gives rise to interesting properties of plasmas which are degenerate in homogeneous (or zero) magnetic fields. Magnetospheric plasmas, as observed commonly in the Universe, are the most simple, natural realization of strongly inhomogeneous structures created spontaneously in the vicinity of magnetic dipoles. The RT-1 device produces a ‘laboratory magnetosphere’ by which stable confinement (particle and energy confinement times ∼0.5 s) of high-β (local electron β ∼ 0.7; electron temperature ≳10 keV) plasma is achieved. By producing a pure-electron plasma, we obtain clear-cut evidence of inward (or up-hill) diffusion of particles. A statistical mechanical model reveals the ‘distortion’ of phase space, induced by the inhomogeneity of the ambient magnetic field, on which the plasma relaxes into an equilibrium with inhomogeneous density while it maximizes the entropy.