"Levitation is crucial because the magnetic field used to confine the plasma would be disturbed by any objects in its way, such as any supports used to hold the magnet in place. In the experimental runs, they recreated the same conditions with and without the support system in place, and confirmed that the confinement of the plasma was dramatically increased in the levitated mode, with the supports removed. With the magnet levitated, the central peak of plasma density developed within a few hundredths of a second, and closely resembled those observed in planetary magnetospheres (such as the magnetic fields surrounding Earth and Jupiter)."



OK - now I have a picture in my head of what they are doing. This is 'effing genius!!


This is also a reason the Polywell fusion design holds so much promise. The whole point of the design is not to interfere (as much as possible) with the plasma field. Polywell sends the fuel racing to the "core" of the magnetic field (generated by the torus) increasing the probability of a fusion reaction.

Similar ideas, same goal.