Plasma heating in a high-voltage toroidal theta pinch

Rapid heating of ions and electrons to keV temperatures in approximately-less-than 1 ..mu..sec has been observed at densities of 1 x 10/sup 14/ cm/sup -3/. This is to be compared with experiments in which energy losses along the magnetic field limit the electron temperature. The most striking difference is in the electron- to ion-temperature ratio which is now approximately-greater-than 2 rather than approximately-less-than 0.3 as in comparable open-ended theta pinches.