Externally Pinched Plasma

A new process of pinching a plasma column is treated theoretically. A column of plasma with no longitudinal current can be pinched by an external magnetic field parallel to the column; and the plasma thus pinched will not show any instability. The process depends on the effective value of γ, the ratio of specific heats. For γ=2 in particular, the temperature of a perfectly conducting plasma with no heat loss will rise in proportion to the external magnetic field.