Formation of Collisionless High- β Plasmas by Odd-Parity Rotating Magnetic Fields

Odd-parity rotating magnetic fields (RMFₒ) applied to mirror-configuration plasmas have produced average electron energies exceeding 200 eV at line-averaged electron densities of ~10¹² cm^-3. These plasmas, sustained for over 10³τAlfven, have low Coulomb collisionality, vc*≡L/λC~10^-3, where λC is the Coulomb scattering mean free path and L is the plasma's characteristic half length. Divertors allow reduction of the electron-neutral collision frequency to values where the RMFₒ coupling indicates full penetration of the RMFₒ to the major axis.