An interpretation of multipole confinement experiments

Some of the abundant and at times seemingly contradictory results of confinement studies in multipoles are summarised and clarified, concentrating on the more recent developments and with emphasis, in particular, on the Wisconsin multipole program. It is significant that as tokamaks reduce their Zsub(eff) and increase in size (and/or density), so that they are less dominated by wall and limiter effects, fluctuation phenomena previously seen in multipoles may be in evidence in tokamaks today. (author)