The physics of magnetically confined plasmas has had much of its development as part of
the program to develop fusion energy and is an important element in the study of space and …

The spherical torus or spherical tokamak (ST) is a member of the tokamak family with its
aspect ratio (A= R 0/a) reduced to A∼ 1.5, well below the normal tokamak operating range …

Electron Bernstein wave (EBW) assisted plasma current start-up has been demonstrated for
the first time in a tokamak. It was shown that plasma currents up to 17 kA can be generated …

The magnetohydrodynamic kink instability is observed and identified experimentally as a
poloidal flux amplification mechanism for coaxial gun spheromak formation. Plasmas in this …

The Wisconsin Plasma Astrophysics Laboratory (WiPAL) is a flexible user facility designed
to study a range of astrophysically relevant plasma processes as well as novel geometries …

Spontaneous current jump resulting in the formation of closed field equilibrium has been
observed in electron-cyclotron-heated toroidal plasmas under steady external fields …

A method of coaxial helicity injection has successfully produced a closed flux current without
the use of the central solenoid in the NSTX device, on a size scale closer to a spherical torus …

After intensive discharge cleaning of the chamber wall, non-inductive current start-up
experiments have been successfully performed in QUEST in moderate vertical fields of …

The central solenoid is an intrinsic part of all present-day tokamaks and most spherical
tokamaks. The spherical torus (ST) confinement concept is projected to operate at high …

Transient coaxial helicity injection (CHI) in the National Spherical Torus Experiment (NSTX)
has generated toroidal current on closed-flux surfaces without the use of the central …