Unusual effects in rotating plasma

Nat Fisch

Princeton University

Friday, May 11, 2018

3:00pm

NW17-218

PSFC Seminars

Abstract: Rotating plasma can exhibit certain unusual effects, both in providing confinement and in affecting particle transport. These effects can be exploited in a variety of plasma devices, including Hall thrusters, plasma mass filters, and fusion confinement devices.  In pulsed devices, rotating plasma can exhibit unusual heat capacity effects.  A promising but highly speculative possibility is to exploit rotation to achieve magnetic confinement in a plasma torus, replacing in part the toroidal electron current.

 

Bio: Nathaniel Fisch is professor and associate chair of the Department of Astrophysical Sciences and director of the Program in Plasma Physics at Princeton University.   He is also the associate director for academic affairs at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory.  He earned BS, MS and PhD degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.  Among other things, he is known for methods of generating electrical current in plasma using electromagnetic waves.  His current research interests include plasma physics with applications to nuclear fusion, lasers, propulsion, nuclear waste remediation, and astrophysics.