On the Mechanism of Maintenance and Instability of the Overvoltage Low-Pressure Discharge Forming a High-Current Runaway Electron Beam

Results of experiments on the study of dynamics of an overvoltage discharge at the low pressure р = 0.5–2.5 Torr up to its transition to the high-current low-voltage regime are presented, and the instability mechanism leading to a sharp voltage drop across the discharge is suggested.