[en] The present calculations are applicable to any beam geometry with cylindrical symmetry, including the converging beam geometry (large entrance port with radius > or approx. = 10 cm), as well as the pencil-shaped beam (small porthole with radius approx. mm). The small porthole is clearly advantageous from the reactor vessel design point of view. While the physics of the latter mode of propagation may be more complex, analyses up to this point have not revealed any detrimental instability effects that will inhibit propagation. In fact, the large perpendicular velocity v/sub perpendicular/ that the pinched mode can accommodate provides a mechanism for the quenching of filamentary instability. Furthermore, this mode of propagation can withstand more ion scattering and is not subject to the upper bound on pressure (p < 10 torr) which is imposed on the converging beam mode