Surface currents on ideal plasmas

Surface currents on ideal plasmas

Surface currents on ideal plasmas 150 150 UKAEA Opendata

Surface currents on ideal plasmas

The surface or “skin” current that can flow at a perturbed interface between plasma and vacuum is considered in the approximation where a surface marks a sharp transition from plasma to vacuum. A short magnetohydrodynamic calculation gives an exact and general expression for the component perpendicular to the average of the magnetic field either side of the surface, finding it proportional to the edge plasma pressure. A consequence is that for all plasmas with zero surface current at equilibrium, the surface current associated with any linear instability will flow parallel to the magnetic field. The surface current is calculated for a simple but realistic model of a cylindrical plasma, and found to depend on the type of instability, and consequently on the particular plasma equilibrium. This is illustrated for two well known cases.

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19/11/2010