Key points are not available for this paper at this time.
During combined electron cyclotron and neutral beam heating, an abrupt drop and rise in potential by about one half of the central electron temperature (400 V) was observed in the core of the compact helical system heliotron/torsatron plasma. Drastic changes of radial electric field between positive and negative states occur over periods as short as 60 s, which is much shorter than the energy confinement time scale of about a few milliseconds. A nonlinear relation between the radial electric field and radial current is obtained. This is the first experimental observation of a microsecond time scale spontaneous transition based on an electric field bifurcation in toroidal helical plasmas.
Fujisawa et al. (1997) studied this question.