Nonadiabatic phenomena during magnetic trap confinement and their influence on maximum x-ray energy from electron-cyclotron-resonance-heated plasmas - art. no. 046405

Nonadiabatic effects during the confinement of energetic electrons with a g yroradius comparable with the magnetic field scale have been studied with a phase section technique. The appearance of a hot electron component is a c haracteristic feature of electron-cyclotron-resonance-heated plasma product ion in magnetic mirrors. A criterion for the absence of stable trajectories and the transition to strong stochastic motion for any initial condition i s proposed and confirmed by simulations. Satisfactory agreement with the ex perimental x-ray spectra is obtained.