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Drift cyclotron loss cone instabilities

(DCLC) this is an electrostatic microinstability (frequencies at harmonics of the ion cyclotron frequency) which is of major concern in small mirror devices. Mode is driven by radial gradients in the electron density, and causes loss of ions due to non-conservation of magnetic moment (see adiabatic invariant) as they interact with the mode, and are dispersed in velocity space into the loss cone. Stabilisation is accomplished by increasing the plasma size and by partially filling the loss cone with a continuous extermal warm plasma stream.