Kinematics of Ohmic Heated Plasmas in the B-1 Stellarator

Abstract

A kinematic description of the B-1 stellarator plasma during various stages of Ohmic heating discharges is presented. It is shown that for specific ranges of plasma current, for a given confining field, the plasma assumes a shape which has an azimuthal distribution of the form exp im θ. It is further shown that the plasma column rotates at high velocity while the distortion is present. The possible relationship between these current ranges and the predictions of hydromagnetic instability theory is considered.