Macroscopic Stability of Charged Particle Streams

We compare the analysis of macroscopic instabilities of pinch systems based on classical hydromagnetic theory with an analysis based on two-fluid electromagnetic hydrodynamics. In contrast to the predictions of the hydromagnetic theory, where the sausage-type instability is thought to predominate, the two-fluid electromagnetic hydrodynamics approach indicates that filamentation of the current channel is the most important mechanism at work. We conclude that macroscopic instabilities are not insurmountable obstacles for the laboratory realization of the electromagnetic collapse; that is, the contraction of plasma by the magnetic field of its own current to the condense state.