Method and Apparatus for Torsional Magnetic Reconnection

An apparatus for confining plasma and enabling torsional magnetic reconnection comprising:

• a vacuum environment housing;
• a conducting coil apparatus, comprising two symmetric halves, each adapted to carry oppositely flowing current, disposed within said vacuum environment housing and symmetrically displaced with respect to one another, further adapted to carry a plurality of electric currents for rapidly generating and maintaining a fan-spine magnetic field topology characterized by a spine axis normal to and intersecting a two-dimensional fan plane and a magnetic null, the two symmetric halves having a longitudinal axis collinear with the spine axis, and a center co-located with the magnetic null;
• a plasma sheath apparatus comprising a plurality of outer electrodes connected to an outer electrode base, separated by an insulator from and surrounding one or more concentrically-arranged inner electrode(s) and a plasma surface, mounted within said vacuum environment housing with its cylindrical axis parallel or perpendicular to the spine axis, and aligning the inner electrode(s) with the center of the two symmetric halves of the conducting coil apparatus, the plasma sheath apparatus being adapted to employ a high-voltage discharge delivered by a capacitor bank and electrical bus to generate, confine, and drive an axially propagating plasma sheath toward or away from the magnetic null to induce an azimuthal magnetic field perturbation that forms current sheets and forces magnetic field line diffusion through the plasma, thereby enabling torsional magnetic reconnection.