Tearing instability in an anisotropic neutral sheet. Memorandum report

Technical Report · Wed Sep 07 04:00:00 EDT 1983

OSTI ID:5373331

Chen, J; Palmadesso, P

A study is made of the collisionless tearing-mode stability properties of a field-reversed plasma layer whose temperature distribution is anisotropic. The plasma is confined by its self magnetic field with no external field. A kinetic description is used for both ions and electrons. The effects of the axis-crossing and nonaxis-crossing orbits are discussed. It is found that the conventional technique of matching the inner and outer asymptotic solutions at the electron inner-region is inadequate for the anisotropic case. An intermediate region in which the axis-crossing ion orbits are important is identified. The eigenvalue equation is solved using both analytic approximations and numerical methods to obtain the eigenmode structure and the linear dispersion relation.

• Research Organization: Naval Research Lab., Washington, DC (USA)
• OSTI ID: 5373331
• Report Number(s): AD-A-132684/2
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
700107* -- Fusion Energy-- Plasma Research-- Instabilities
ANISOTROPY
COLLISIONLESS PLASMA
DISPERSION RELATIONS
EIGENVALUES
INSTABILITY
KINETICS
MAGNETIC FIELD CONFIGURATIONS
MAGNETIC FIELD REVERSAL
MAGNETIC FIELDS
PLASMA
PLASMA INSTABILITY
PLASMA MACROINSTABILITIES
PLASMA WAVES
TEARING INSTABILITY