Evolution of the Pinched Column During Hard X-ray and Neutron Emission in a Dense Plasma Focus

The paper summarizes important results of the recent experimental studies performed on the plasma-focus PF-1000 facility operated in Warsaw, Poland, mainly with the pure deuterium filling. Attention is focused on the evolution of toroidal and plasmoidal self-organized structures formed by internal closed currents inside the dense plasma column. The production of hard x-rays and neutrons corresponds with the formation and decay of plasmoids, in which charged particles can be accelerated effectively to high energies, during a release of the magnetic energy from current filaments of high energy density. It is noticed that the studies of laboratory fusion and cosmic plasmas deal with similar problems, e.g., the fast release of the magnetic energy in a form of high-energy charged particle beams.