Equilibrium of a Rapidly Rotating Axisymmetric Magnetic Mirror Machine
Plasma Physics
2026-07-20 v1
Abstract
A recent paper [Hazeltine, et al., Phys. Plasmas 33, 072501 (2026)] has questioned whether the standard result, (ultimately) due to Ferraro, that the plasma angular velocity is approximately constant along individual equilibrium magnetic field-lines in a rotating axisymmetric magnetic mirror machine, continues to hold when the rotation becomes sonic or supersonic. In order to resolve this issue, the equilibrium of a rapidly rotating mirror is investigated, starting from first principles, using an ideal two-fluid model with anisotropic pressure. It is found that, as long as the ion gyro-radius is much less than the machine size, and the angular velocity of the plasma is much less than the ion gyro-frequency, the Ferraro result holds good.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2607.18203,
title = {Equilibrium of a Rapidly Rotating Axisymmetric Magnetic Mirror Machine},
author = {Richard Fitzpatrick},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2607.18203},
year = {2026}
}