LECTURES ON THE HYDROMAGNETIC STABILITY OF A CYLINDRICAL PLASMA. I. INTRODUCTION AND THE METHOD OF NORMAL MODES

Technical Report · Mon Jun 01 04:00:00 EDT 1959

OSTI ID:4219805

Tayler, R J

This series of lectures is mainly concerned with the stability against small perturbations of a cylindrical plasma which is assumed to behave as an ideal hydromagnetic fluid. In the first part, the hydromagnetic equations are stated, and the basic ideas of linear stability analysis are developed. It is pointed out that a plasma may not behave as an ideal fluid and that nonlinear terms may have an important influence on stability problems. One method of solving linear stability problems is that of normal modes. A general perturbation of a plasma surface does not preserve its form as it grows or decays. Certain perturbations do preserve their form and are called normal perturbations and a general perturbation can be expressed in terms of normal perturbations. The stability of the system can be investigated by finding whether any of the normal modes are unstable. This method is applied to two simple examples, one from rigid dynamaics and the other from hydromagnetics. (auth)

• Research Organization: United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority. Research Group. Atomic Energy Research Establishment, Harwell, Berks, England
• NSA Number: NSA-13-021302
• OSTI ID: 4219805
• Report Number(s): AERE-L-102
• Country of Publication: United Kingdom
• Language: English

Related Subjects

CYLINDERS
DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS
FLUID FLOW
MAGNETOHYDRODYNAMICS
MECHANICS
NUMERICALS
PERTURBATION THEORY
PHYSICS AND MATHEMATICS
PLASMA
STABILITY
SURFACES
VARIATIONS