Influence of Hall effect on the dynamics of a non-cylindrical Z-pinch

The paper studies the Hall effect in a gas-discharge plasma and its influence on the discharge dynamics. A qualitative analysis is made of the importance of the Hall effect in a non-cylindrical Z-pinch. It is shown that long before the instant of collapse of the plasma on the discharge axis, its electron component is strongly magnetized, and the Hall electric fields predominate over the Ohmic fields. The authors present the main results of a two-dimensional calculation in which the boundary conditions are used as a means of taking the Hall effect into account. The discharge dynamics obtained in the calculation are similar to the actual dynamics found for one of the non-cylindrical Z-pinch regimes.