Penetration of a compressible magnetized plasma object into a low beta target plasma

Abstract

The effects of the shape and compressibility of a perfectly conducting spheromaklike compact toroid (SCT) propagating into a low beta plasma have been studied. Simple tools that allow one to identify conditions for the optimum penetration of the SCT into the low beta target plasma have been developed. The main results obtained are (1) squeezed (prolate) SCT’s penetrate more easily; (2) including SCT compressibility reduces injection power requirement, and (3) there exists a broad parameter range where the SCT injection can maintain tokamak particle inventory while simultaneously reducing external auxiliary heating requirements.