Madison Symmetric Torus
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| Type | Reversed field pinch |
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| Location | Madison, Wisconsin, United States |
The Madison Symmetric Torus (MST) is a reversed field pinch (RFP) physics experiment with applications to both fusion energy research and astrophysical plasmas located at University of Wisconsin-Madison. RFPs are significantly different from tokamaks (the most popular magnetic confinement scheme) in that they tend to have a higher power density and better confinement characteristics for a given average magnetic field. RFPs also tend to be dominated by non-ideal phenomena and turbulent effects. MST is one of the sites in the Center for Magnetic Self Organization (CMSO).
As in most such experiments the MST plasma is a toroidal pinch, which means the plasma is shaped like a donut and confined by a magnetic field generated by a large current flowing through it. MST falls into an unconventional class of machine called a reversed field pinch (RFP.) The RFP is so named because the toroidal magnetic field that permeates the plasma spontaneously reverses direction near the edge.
A reversed field pinch is formed similarly to other toroidal pinch devices, by driving current through the plasma from an associated capacitor bank or other high-current power source. In a tokamak the toroidal field is much stronger than the poloidal field, but in an RFP it's just the opposite. In fact, in an RFP the externally applied toroidal field is switched off shortly after startup. The plasma in an RFP is also much closer to the wall than in a Tokamak. This permits a peculiar arrangement of the magnetic field lines, which will 'relax' into a new state such that the total magnetic energy in the plasma is minimized and the total magnetic helicity is conserved. The relaxed state, called a Taylor state, is marked by a peculiar arrangement of magnetic field lines where the toroidal magnetic field at the edge spontaneously reverses direction.
Like most toroidal confinement schemes, the RFP relies on a transient burst of current to create the plasma and the magnetic fields that confine it. But for the RFP to be a viable fusion energy candidate the plasma must be sustained by a steady state current source. OFCD is a scheme for driving a steady current in a relaxed plasma by adding sizable oscillating perturbations to the toroidal and poloidal fields injecting both power and helicity into the plasma.
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