The magnetic mirror approach to fusion is reviewed in depth. Starting with a brief chronological history of the development of the basic mirror concept, its subsequent evolution into the tandem mirror, the field reversed mirror and other variants is described. Also discussed are the many-faceted aspects of mirror theory, including adiabatic invariants, MHD equilibrium and stability, collisional processes, transport theory and micro-instability theory. The review concludes with an updating of experimental results, a discussion of mirror-related technology, including neutral beam injection and direct conversion, and a brief description of design studies of mirror fusion power plants.
Interaction of a plasma flow with a mirror field in the BSG-IA device