Possible formation of a toroidal current layer in a plasma vortex

Summary form only given. The formation of a toroidal current layer due to the trapping of the magnetic field in a plasma vortex is considered theoretically. The magnetic field may be created by a spark discharge, according to Vlasov (1990), or another pulse sources. From the point of view of its structure the toroidal current layer can be considered as an inverse /spl theta/-pinch because, if in the usual /spl theta/-pinch plasma is rolled into a filament and a magnetic field created by an external source surrounds it and supports it, then, in contrast, in this configuration the magnetic field is rolled into a filament and plasma in the form of a toroidal current layer surrounds and maintains the magnetic field supported by a vortex ring from the external medium. This vortex guarantees the stability of the configuration. A model of the toroidal current layer is proposed in the form of a monolayer of relativistic electrons and a shelf of positive ions. The electrons in the toroidal current layer are coherent because in the monolayer they have equal velocities and hypothetically a coherent electron catalyzed fusion (CEC-fusion) is possible in this plasma configuration. The velocity of the plasma vortex ring layers which ensure stability of the current layer is found. The lifetimes of the current layer and plasma vortex ring are estimated. The feasibility of producing this configuration is demonstrated.