Long Wavelength Instability in a Reflex Discharge

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Abstract
An examination of the stability of the reflex arc discharge against a long wavelength m = 1 instability has been carried out. In performing the calculation, use was made of the experimental plasma density distribution and the plasma potential distribution as computed by Chen for a hot cathode reflex arc in a strong magnetic field. It is found that the discharge is unstable for helical instabilities with wavelength greater than 1200 R cm, where R is the discharge radius. The growth rate increases with increasing wavelength. This result is consistent with that of Simon's analysis of a slab geometry with crossed electric and magnetic fields.