Abstract: A device is proposed for confining charged particles to a localized region of space by means of the alternating electric field of a resonant cavity. The motion of single electrons in the field is stable. The limitations to particle density and temperature are discussed, and found to be too severe to allow the device to serve as a reactor, although it might be a useful laboratory tool.

The intuitive concept that a sector shaped centrifuge cell is free from convection is criticized. Not only is a form of convection present for a single sedimenting species, but a more insidious type occurs in a mixture having an appreciable Johnston-Ogston effect. Rather than striving for convection-free sedimentation, the proposal is to utilize if possible an apparently harmless type of convection occurring in a very thin annulus in order to avoid the convection extending between boundaries in a mixture. The requirement that the concentrations be independent of time meets this condition and yields a hyperbolic cell, which is approximated by a sector cell placed in the rotor backwards. Simultaneously, area measurements and calculations involving the Johnston-Ogston anomaly are simplified because of the time independence.