Nonequilibrium Alfvénic plasma jets associated with spheromak formation.

Nonequilibrium Alfvénic flows have been observed in plasma jets during the helicity injection stage of the Caltech spheromak experiment. Density and time of flight measurements of these jets show that the flows convect dense plasma (beta approximately 1) because of the axial gradient in the current channel profile. A simplified MHD theory is derived to model the flow.