The plasma with maximum poloidal beta value β
p (the ratio of the plasma pressure to the magnetic pressure of the toroidal plasma current) of 3.0 has been obtained in
STP-2 by compression together with joule heating. In this case of β
p=3.0 the plasma interacts strongly with wall. The maximum β
p value without strong wall contacts was about 1.3. We observed that force-free current is formed in the periphery of the plasma and the penetration of the poloidal magnetic field is much faster than the classical one.
We have performed a numerical simulation using a 2-
D MHD pinch code “
TOPICS” in order to understand this high-beta plasma equilibrium having β
p=3.0 and the mechanism of fast field penetration observed in
STP-2 plasmas. It is demonstrated that the fast field penetration and the observed electron temperatures can be explained by introducing the influx of neutral particles and the ion acoustic type anomalous resistivity.
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