7th Asia-Pacific Conference on Plasma Physics, 12-17 Nov., 2023 at Port Messe Nagoya

Parker’s Effect and its Relevance to Magnetic Confinement Fusion
Martin Storey1, Jesse Schelfhout2, David Pfefferlé2, L. R. Owen Storey1
1
Meranti Research Laboratories
2
School of Physics, Mathematics and Computing, University of Western Australia
e-mail (speaker): mstorey@meranti-research.net

Over the past half-century of fusion research, muchprogress has been made in the understanding and designof fusion devices, yet there is no consensus over which
technology may deliver electricity to the grideconomically, while remaining of a practical size and costto build and operate. This realization, strengthened by
the urgency for securing reliable, environmentally benign
energy, sufficient for current and future needs, hasrecently reinvigorated fusion research.
This hasencouraged some plasma physicists to investigate ideas
for new devices, as well as to review some that were put
aside in the early 1970s. A little-known electromagnetic
effect discovered by the theoretical astrophysicist Eugene
Parker and his collaborators in the late 1960s may offer
such an alternative. The aims of this talk are to explain
Parker’s Effect, its possible relevance to fusion, how thiscan be verified, and to present the results of recent
preliminary studies.
Parker investigated a simplified model of the flow of
the solar wind around Earth’s magnetic field, focussing on
the strip where the flow is parallel to the field lines (Figure1, red boxes). He discovered that, in the thin boundary
layer between the plasma and the field, a secondary
magnetic field would arise, stronger than the primary fieldin the ratio of the flow speed to the ion thermal speed.
This effect causes the boundary layer to become unstable,
under certain circumstances [1].
In 1979, Storey and Cairo suggested that Parker’sEffect may have applications to fusion. Specifically,
they showed that if the flowing plasma was confined by
the magnetic field rather than the inverse, then the effectwould reinforce the confinement [2]. In a simple currentcarrying ring set up as shown in Figure 2, the secondary
magnetic field created by the plasma flow strengthens thepressure confining the plasma at the throat.
This effect has never been observed experimentally orin simulation, mainly because it has not been sought.
Our research group has designed a sequence of numericalsimulations to confirm Parker’s Effect and study its
potential applications to fusion devices. If the effect isconfirmed, the follow-up work would be to simulate amodular toroidal device to demonstrate the effective
magnetic confinement of a flowing plasma, as illustrated
by Figure 3. The work is ongoing, and preliminary
results are encouraging.
For instance, a simplistic
kinetic simulation of such a system suggests that plasmaconfinement becomes excellent at flow velocity of about
Mach 5 relative to the ion thermal speed (Figure 4).
Other figures of merit will be discussed, the current
experiments described, and the latest results presented.

References[1] E.N. Parker. "Dynamical properties of the magnetosphere" In
Physics of the Magnetosphere: Based upon the Proceedings ofthe Conference Held at Boston College June 19–28, 1967.
Springer Netherlands, 1968.
[2] L.R.O. Storey and L. Cairo. "Kinetic theory of the boundary
layer between a flowing isotropic plasma and a magnetic field."
Magnetospheric Boundary Layers 148 (1979)

Figure 1. Simplifed model studied by E. Parker.

Figure 2. Main section of a system in which a magnetic
field surrounds a flowing plasma.

Figure 3. Simple system to evaluate the suggested
method of plasma confinement.

Figure 4. Numerical simulation of plasma loss rate vs.
plasma flow speed in a setup similar to Figure 3.