Ohmic plasma heating in the M-8 installation with a space axis

General performances of discharge and plasma produced in the M-8 installation with a space axis at ohmic heating are presented. The results of simple estimations and numerical solutions of equilibrium shift of current plasma in this system are discussed. It is shown that for lack of the accelerated electron beam the experimentally measured plasma shift is close to the calculated one. The results of theoretical analysis and experimental study of MHD instabilities of the space plasma current filament are given. Under the conditions of the lack of large-scale instabilities the experimental dependencies of the time of plasma confinement tausub(E) and βsub(phi) functionally coincide with ones observed earlier in tokamaks, and the vacuum poloidal field plays the essential role in plasma confinement