Relaxation of Toroidal Plasma and Generation of Reverse Magnetic Fields

1974/11/04 by J. B. Taylor · 17 citations
Physics and Astronomy · Mathematics · #Magnetic confinement fusion research #Ionosphere and magnetosphere dynamics #Laser-Plasma Interactions and Diagnostics #Plasma #Toroid #Physics #Relaxation (psychology) #Magnetic field #Conductivity #Field (mathematics) #Constraint (computer-aided design) #Condensed matter physics #Topology (electrical circuits) #Quantum mechanics #Mathematics #Geometry

paper · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.33.1139

openalex publication_date 1974/11/04 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/11

Abstract

The spontaneous generation of reversed fields in toroidal plasmas is shown to be a consequence of relaxation under constraints. With perfect conductivity a topological constraint exists for each field line and the final state is not unique. With small departures from perfect conductivity, topological constraints are relaxed and the final state becomes unique. The onset of the reversed field and other features of this model agree well with observations on ZETA.

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