Electrode Arrangement

[Noob]

I am not a physicist, so I may be missing something, but I wondered why the electrodes are straight rods rather than spiralling around the central electrode. I would have thought that a spiralling arrangement would automatically induce an axial field which would help give the angular momentum required to initiate the pinch. As I understand it, additional coils are currently used to induce an axial field for the purpose of providing angular momentum in the plasma.

[Breakable]

I am not a physicist as well, but I would guess that the pinch itself does not have inertia, so the angular momentum mus be constantly created with an angular magnetic field. I am not sure, but I think the twisted electrodes were mentioned in Google tech talk.

[catalystTGJ]

Also, not a physicist, but one would expect by using the coil to induce the angular momentum its easier to implement changes to the system overall. Firstly, a variable input capability on the coil means they can play with that without too much hardware modifications. Secondly, a physical coil swap, in the event the coil is the wrong length, as opposed to replacing the electrodes with a different spiral shape, in the event the initial shape didn’t produce the desired result. It would seem too costly to have to go through many electrode shapes vs. using a simple coil of copper to get the same effect. There’s probably a simple physical reason, but if its not that, its probably a logical choice that won out.

[Author]

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