Production or hot dense plasma by the focusing of plasma flows on the symmetry axis

Production of a hot dense plasma by plasma flows escaping from a cylindrica l surface in vacuum (inverted cylindrical corona) and colliding on the symm etry axis is studied analytically It is shown that a plasma filament with a temperature substantially exceeding the temperature of the ambient medium is formed on the axis. This effect can manifest itself in axial discharges used to generate hard X radiation. Attention is drawn to the possibility of using this effect to heat the plasma to thermonuclear temperatures in iner tial confinement fusion systems.