Magnetic mirror losses

The escape of plasma particles out of the ends of a magnetic mirror device. A mirror holds plasma in a straight tube whose magnetic field is stronger at each end, and a particle heading towards an end is reflected back only if enough of its motion is spent circling the field line rather than travelling along it. Particles moving too directly along the axis fall inside what is called the loss cone and pass straight out through the strong-field end. Collisions keep knocking new particles into the loss cone, so the leak never stops. Reducing it, with stronger end fields, extra plugging cells at the ends or other tricks, has been the central problem of mirror fusion since the 1950s.

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concept:magnetic-mirror-losses

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