Refinement to existing methods of determining distributions of charged particles inside, and end losses from, magnetic mirror systems is made possible by a random walk procedure. Co-ordinate space, as well as velocity space, can now be considered in detail in the analysis. It is shown that the usual loss cone criterion far over-estimates end loss rates unless the mean free path is much greater than the distance between the mirrors. The extent of population of the loss cone is evaluated for a range of mean free paths and mirror ratios.
Plasma confinement by moving multiple mirrors