Local high-temperature plasma formations in a high-current pinching discharge

Local high-temperature plasma formations produced in a high-current vacuum discharge with an initial stored energy of kJ and initiated by a plasma created by the focused radiation from a pulsed laser are investigated. The collapsing current-carrying plasma is found to split into separate current filaments. A mechanism of current-energy transfer to the plasma in the region where the filaments are linked is proposed on the basis of a model of self-stabilized plasma vortices produced when the current-carrying plasma moves in an external magnetic field. As a confirmation of the mechanism, some results are presented of an investigation of the microwave radiation and accelerated particles from the local high-temperature plasma formation region