Can you hold a plasma in a Z-pinch for long time .

[Earl of Plasma]

I wonder can you running relatively high current through a plasma like Z-pinch for a longer period. The Z-pinch is of course unstable by it’s nature, it kinks and get narrow areas for exemple I know that. But will the plasma still be there between the anode and cathode, not dissolving or escaping, holding the plasma in roughly the same place as long as you want. When I look at Tesla coils, the lightning is anything but uniform, but remains between two electrodes. It at least looks so.

Another thing is about the type of current. In plasma lamp and Tesla coils there are alternating current. Is that necessary, is it because the plasma should go back and forth and not just go away in one direction.

What do you think about the possibilities to keep the plasma between electrodes for longer times?

Z-pinch can be dense and therefore I’m interested in keeping plasma in that form and possible for longer times. It maybe can give good conditions for hot continues fusion (like the fusor or tokamak) also, not just inertial type of fusion, which Z-pinch often is referred to.

[FrankOlson]

Don’t know what you’re asking, but check this out. Speciffically page 33 on the ‘Hypocycloidal-Pinch Apparatus’. I found it in a post somewhere in here. The article is

http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19760014958.pdf

An increased confinment time was reported. Quite interesting.

Attached files

[Earl of Plasma]

ThanksFrankOlson for the link
http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19760014958.pdf
It was quite a lot, but very interesting indeed and I havn’t found the part about increased confinement time jet.

What I’m asking about is if the plasma in the light arcs between electrodes really stays there or if a big part of the gas escape. There are a lot of devices producing a light arc with plasma using a voltage between two electrodes. Light tubes, plasma lamps, and more.

The compression don’t have to be crazy hard for fusion, if you add heat. But the plasma have to stay in place, and long enough, if it going to work well. If the plasma hits the walls and other solids object it cools down and the reaktion dies.

[Author]

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