Fluctuations in three Los Alamos experiments

The characteristics of the magnetic field and plasma density fluctuations in three different toroidal magnetic confinement experiments carried out at Los Alamos National Laboratories, i.e., the reversed-field pinch experiment ZT-40M, the spheromak experiment CTX, and the field-reversed theta-pinch experiment FRX-C, are discussed. Various theoretical conjectures in connection with the implications of these fluctuations are also discussed, such as their possible relation to the dynamo effect in reversed-field pinches, the Taylor principle in both reversed-field pinches and spheromaks, and the possible role of the lower-hybrid drift instability to particle confinement scaling in field-reversed theta pinches. 20 refs, 8 figs