Research Directed Toward Understanding Behavior and Detection of Plasmas in Magnetic Field

摘要

The goal of the experimental program was the boundary region between the physics of gaseous discharges and the physics of particle accelerators. A study was made of discharges with currents large enough for collective magnetic field effects to be prominent (> or approx. 100,000 A) and voltages large enough for relativistic effects and nuclear processes to be appreciable (> or approx. 1,000,000 V). The important pure numbers for this regime are the Dudker number A = eI/m(c cubed) for the current and the relativity factory gamma = 1+ (eV/m(c squared)) for the voltage. In order to enter this region with the resources available, a certain amount of experimental development was unavoidable. The principle problems evidently cluster about producing the discharge and measuring its properties. The discharge apparatus consisted of a 100KV, 100KJ bank of standard capacitors, a dielectric switch, a 10-1 step-up transformer, delivering 1 MV output, a 1 MV water-capacitor, and an overvolted water-gap, and the gaseous discharge load. In order to minimize interference with the discharge, optical probing was felt most advisable, and a laser phasography system was worked out. (Author)