Spectroscopic measurements reveal that main ions flow much faster than impurities at the edge of fusion-relevant plasmas.
Surprisingly, a magnetic island does not necessarily perturb the plasma current in a dangerous way and destroy fusion performance.
Scientists discover why solar flares produce X-rays; a few electrons avoid collisions and accelerate to produce a microsecond burst.
The mechanism responsible for creating intense magnetic fields in laser-driven plasmas also helps tear the fields apart.
A new phenomena forms vortices that trap particles, impeding electron avalanches that harm fusion reactors.
U.S. and Korean scientists show how to find and use beneficial 3-D field perturbations to stabilize dangerous edge-localized modes in plasma.
Charged particles emanating from Jupiter’s magnetosphere are powered up to create the northern and southern lights on Ganymede, Jupiter’s largest moon.
In magnetic confinement fusion devices known as tokamaks, the maximum operational density limits the efficiency and now we know how this limit may be overcome.
Enabling beams to respond to plasma conditions in real time allows scientists to avoid instabilities and raise performance.
New technique allows the spatiotemporal control of laser intensity, potentially changing the way laser-based accelerators are optimized.
Supercomputer simulations and theoretical analysis shed new light on when and how fast reconnection occurs.
A mysterious mechanism that prevents instabilities may be similar to the process that maintains the Earth's magnetic field.
