We demonstrate the slow rise to fast acceleration of an arched plasma‐filled magnetic flux rope. The flux rope expansion is inhibited by an externally applied customizable strapping field. When the strapping field is not too strong and not too weak, expansion forces build up while the flux rope is in the strapping field region. When the flux rope moves to a critical height beyond the peak strapping field region, the plasma accelerates quickly corresponding to the observed slow rise to fast acceleration of solar eruptions. This behavior is in agreement with the predictions of the torus instability.

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Electron plasmas with densities of 5×106 cm−3 are trapped in the Lawrence Non-neutral Torus II (LNT II) for times exceeding 1 s. LNT II is a high aspect ratio (R0/a≳10) partially toroidal trap (270° arc, B0=670 G). The m=1 diocotron mode is launched and detected using isolated segments of a fully sectored conducting boundary and its frequency is used to determine the total trapped charge as a function of time. The observed confinement time (≈3 s) approaches the theoretical limit (≈6 s) set by the magnetic pumping transport mechanism of Crooks and O’Neil [Phys. Plasmas 3, 2533 (1996)]. We also present equilibrium modeling and numerical simulations of the toroidal m=1 mode constrained by experimental data. Future work includes the identification of the dominant transport mechanisms via confinement scaling experiments and measurement of the m=2 mode frequency and development of a strategy for making a transition to fully toroidal confinement.

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