Rotating magnetic field to emulate a pulsar magnetosphere in BRB

We are building a dipolar rotating magnetic field (RMF) system with the intention to emulate the magnetosphere of an obliquely rotating pulsar and demonstrate production of an outgoing plasma wind in the Big Red Ball (BRB) device at the Wisconsin Plasma Physics Laboratory (WiPPL.) We expect to form a striped plasma wind similar to that in the neighborhood of a neutron star and potentially to observe magnetic reconnection within the stripes. The driver will consist of an orthogonal pair of Helmholtz-like drive coils in the center of BRB powered by two tube-based amplifiers. The coils will be placed at atmospheric pressure in an alumina-coated fiberglass pressure vessel within BRB. A power of 150 kW per channel will be fed to the drive coils via transmission lines running into the pressure vessel. Fuel gas will be puffed from outlets on the surface of the vessel, and the RMF will ionize the gas. Experimental hardware is in development. Fueling system is currently being tested to ensure that the driver receives enough neutral gas to ionize and form a plasma, additional plasmas sources are also being considered. Diagnostics will consist of a magnetic Hall-Probe Array and a Triple-Langmuir-Mach Probe Array, kinetic diagnostics are currently being manufactured, whereas magnetic diagnostics are ready. Key next steps are to test the RMF drivers at full power prior to installation on BRB, implementing the fueling system, and initial plasma tests.