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Current
A pulse of current down the axis. Ampere’s law wraps a magnetic field around it.
Sheared-flow Z-pinch
Push a huge current through a column of plasma. The current makes an azimuthal magnetic field that pinches the column inward. Classic Z-pinches go unstable. Sheared flow is the trick that tries to hold them.
Cyan rings are the self-made field. Pink is the pinched plasma. Electrodes at both ends.
How it works
If it works at power-plant scale, the machine is almost boring: electrodes, a pulse, a column. That is the commercial pitch.
A pulse of current down the axis. Ampere’s law wraps a magnetic field around it.
J × B points inward. Density and temperature climb. Fusion, if the column lasts.
Zap Energy, out of the University of Washington, adds sheared flow to fight kink and sausage instabilities.
U.S. companies
Everett, Washington. DOE Milestone program. The American sheared-flow Z-pinch company.