Lerner wrote: Two things can absorb the momentum of the ion beam–the motion of the plasmoid, or the magnetic field that the plasmoid is tied to. It is probably mostly the latter, since otherwise the plasmoid would smash into the anode before the pulse ended.
jamesr wrote: As far I was concerned the plasmoid is the field by definition. ie. when the magnetic field lines break and reconnect to form an closed structure, that is called a plasmoid.
1) Is there any evidence that the the plasmoid does smash into the anode? Do we know how much it will move before total collapse?
2) What happens to the e-beam? Does it go through a hole in the anode for the charge to be re-cycled into the following shot, or is the energy so small that it isn’t worth the trouble and it simply shorts out into the positively charged anode?
