Theory of plasma injection into a magnetic field

Abstract

Analytic and self-consistent solutions for the propagation of a low-beta, large-gyroradius plasma across a transverse magnetic field are derived. It is shown that if ω2pi/Ω2i≫(M/m)1/2, the beam can propagate into the field by means of an E×B plasma drift. The cross-field velocity of the plasma in this case is found to be very nearly equal to the beam injection velocity u0. The theory is discussed with reference to recent proof-of-principle experiments on cross-field propagation.