Magnetically confined plasma flows with helical symmetry

Abstract

Stationary flows with an ignorable coordinate are analysed and the differential equation for the only independent current function of the problem is obtained for the polytropic, incompressible and adiabatic cases. The possibility of confinement for the stationary symmetric plasma fluxes is then investigated and the confinement conditions are given. Some examples are solved for the particular case of helical symmetry; for general flows it is possible to construct magnetically confined plasma columns only with cylindrical shape; whereas if the plasma velocity has the direction of the ignorable coordinate, we show that it is possible to construct magnetically confined plasma columns with helical shape and plasma flux along the helices.