PPPL-3554 is available in pdf or postscript formats.

Electron Acceleration in the Field-reversed Configuration (FRC) by Slowly Rotating Odd-parity Magnetic Fields (RMFo)

Authors: Alan H.Glasser and Samuel A.Cohen

Date of PPPL Report: April 2001

To be published in: Physical Review Letters

The trajectories of individual electrons are studied numerically in a 3D, prolate, FRC equilibrium magnetic geometry with added small-amplitude, slowly rotating, odd-parity magnetic fields (RMFos). RMFos cause electron heating by toroidal acceleration near the O-point line and by field-parallel acceleration away from it, both followed by scattering from magnetic-field inhomogeneities. Electrons accelerated along the O-point line move antiparallel to the FRC's current and attain average toroidal angular speeds near that of the RMFo, independent of the sense of RMFo rotation. A conserved transformed Hamiltonian, dependent on electron energy and RMFo sense, controls electron flux-surface coordinate.