Nonmagnetic containment of a dense plasma

A study is made of the possibility of confining a thermonuclear plasma with temperature T 10⁴ eV and density n 10¹⁸ cm^-3, not by magnetic field pressure, but by hard walls of a chamber (nonmagnetic containment). This method of plasma containment has some specific features: the occurrence of plasma flow, formation of a dense layer at the wall, increased importance of radiative losses from the plasma, and more. A numerical solution of the plasma-transport equations is used to investigate the influence of these features on the energy lifetime of the plasma. The results indicate that the additional energy losses by the plasma are not catastrophically large, and, in principle, nonmagnetic containment of a dense plasma is possible.Translated from Zhurnal Prikladnoi Mekhaniki i Tekhnicheskoi Fiziki, No. 6, pp. 3–13, November–December, 1974.