A steady state linear machine for collisionless plasma studies

The authors describe a new linear, steady state machine for the production of a quiescent, magnetically confined, collisionless hydrogen plasma. This new device is particularly well suited for the study of low frequency drift wave type instabilities such as the trapped ion instability. This represents an extension of the parameter space accessible to linear devices and more closely simulates the collisionality and bounce frequency regimes ( nu / omega b <or approximately=0.1) of a thermonuclear plasma.