Direction of the electons and alpha particles

[nemmart]

I’m a software guy, so pardon me if this is a naive question. But as I understand it from Eric’s google talk, after a series of instabilities, the plasma kinks up into a tight ball, well, donut actually, and you get the high energy collisions and thus the fusion. But I don’t really understand the structure of the ball/donut. What causes the alpha particles to be shot out in one direction and the electrons in the opposite? Naively, I would assume that after the fusion of p and B, the alpha particles would just shoot out in all directions randomly. Also what even causes the donut shape to be lined up in the direction of the cathode? Is the physics difficult to understand or am I just missing something?

Many thanks…
Niall

[Aeronaut]

The plasmoid (donut) is a microscopic magnetic bubble formed by the magnetic field which began with the capacitors dropping ~1MA into the fuel gas. Following the kink instability, the collapsing field compresses the fuel to a near solid, directing the ions in the opposite direction of the electrons. The electrons re-heat the plasmoid, and the ion beam continues until the field has entirely collapsed for practical purposes.

[Author]

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