A possible experimental stability study of field reversed configurations with neutral beam injection

So far, field reversed configurations (FRC) with good confinement have only been obtained in a highly kinetic regime, where s (ratio of torus minor radius to average ion gyroradius) is less than about 2. This may be due to formation or stability problems. The authors describe here an experiment which could separate formation and stability issues and begin to provide a solution to the latter. An FRCs -- 2 would be formed by the usual field-reversed theta-pinch method, and then translated and trapped with s -- 3 in a region where neutral beam injection could take place. One would compare the FRC flux confinement with and without injection since fast ions may increase stability and drive currents, resulting in slower internal flux decay