Plasma comprises the major component of the Sun and the stars, consisting in a system of charged particles, usually electrons and positive ions, macroscopically neutral. It is present in the magnetosphere, being observable in the polar aurora, and in electric arcs. In the laboratory, it is normally produced by the ionization of gas molecules and atoms by strong electromagnetic fields. The resulting charged particles are not bound, but interact through their fields producing a collective behavior. The magnetic confinemennt of high temperature plasma is the main research topic in the Plasma Physics Laboratory, carried out by a midsize tokamak, a toroidal chamber with an axial magnetic field, for confinement of high temperature plasmas. The main concern is the study of stability, transport, and heating of the confined plasma in a far from thermal equilibrium, important for the development of future fusion reactors and for technological applications.
Plasma physics
Artour Grigorievich Elfimov
Iberê Luiz Caldas
Ivan Cunha Nascimento
José Helder Facundo Severo
Ricardo Magnus Osório Galvão
Ruy Pepe da Silva
Zwinglio Guimarães Filho
