Figure 1 (IMAGE)

American Physical Society

Figure 1

Caption

Trajectories of (a) hot ash and (b) colder fuel ions as they interact with a growing, high-frequency wave in a magnetized plasma. The ash diffuses stochastically due to resonant interactions with the wave. Absent any response in the fuel ions, this diffusion will create an electric field, leading to plasma rotation. However, the ion drift from left to right in (b) demonstrates new understanding of how the fuel ions respond to the wave, which can sometimes negate the rotation drive effect.

Credit

Ian Ochs, Princeton University

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