Collisional losses from the ends of a mirror machine place substantial restrictions on the confinement time of a plasma in such a device. One method proposed to improve the viability of a mirror machine reactor is to reduce the end losses by some means other than the magnetostatic field. Such a device is called an end stopper and it has the effect of changing the loss cone of the usual mirror machine into a loss hyperboloid (two sheet). The end losses from a mirror machine with an ideal, perfectly reflecting end stopper are studied by numerically solving the Fokker–Planck equation with appropriate mirror-end stopper boundary conditions. The mirror and end stopper are assumed to be a square well system and only decay of the ions from the system is considered.
Collaboration is an increasingly important aspect of physics research, particularly for complex and expensive experiments. Large experiments often rely on national or international teams of researchers to optimize goals and to provide greater use of facilities. Availability of highperformance workstations and fast, reliable wide-area networks affords the possibility of realizing "collaborative laboratories" comprising researchers and infrastructure widely dispersed geographically. We have developed a collaboratory supporting interactive research on a mainline scientific facility, the DIII-D tokamak experiment [5] (Figure 1). Distributed computations and data access provide resource sharing among institutions.
C ollaboration is increasing in importance as physics research continues to focus on fewer, larger, and more expensive projects. Experiments in the U.S. research program on magnetic-fusion energy are currently operated as national projects using teams of scientists from many institutions, most with international representation. A next-generation experiment is being designed as an international effort and will be operated with worldwide involvement. Future facilities will support continuous operation for which interactive, real-time experimentation becomes an important issue. To minimize the need for relocation and travel by researchers and their families and to sustain scientists' continued active involvement from their home institutions, we have been exploring techniques for interactive remote participation in experiments. 1,2 High-performance wide-area networks and powerful workstations are helping us to create a distributed computing and information environment. In our approach, process-toprocess communications over high-speed wide-area networks provide real-time synchronization and exchange of data among multiple computer networks. Considerable additional information associated with a control-room environment is also made available to the off-site collaborators, so that they can be integrated into experimental operations. Shared audio and visual environments help to nurture close personal interaction among researchers at multiple sites. This sort of organization of a research project is often referred to as a "collaboratory." 3 Background Magnetic-fusion-energy research involves the scientific exploration of methods for confining and heating an ionized gas, or plasma, to temperatures in the range of tens of millions of degrees for energy-recycling times of a few seconds. In a plasma, isotopes of hydrogen, deuterium and tritium, undergo fusion reactions in which these ions combine to form helium with the release of energy in the form of neutrons. These reactions are the same that fuel our sun and the stars and can in principle be used to generate a nearly limitless supply of energy for future generations. In addition to fusion, the rele
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