Hydrodynamic models as applied to the investigation of magnetic plasma stability

In the present paper magnetohydrodynamic models are employed to investigate the stability of an inhomogeneous magnetic plasma with respect to perturbations in which the electric field may be regarded as a potential field (rot E 0). A hydrodynamic model, actually an extension of the well-known Chew-Goldberg er-Low model [1], is used to investigate motions transverse to a strong magnetic field in a collisionless plasma. The total viscous stress tensor is given; this includes, together with magnetic viscosity, the so-called inertial viscosity.Ordinary two-fluid hydrodynamics is used in the case of strong collisions=. It is shown that the collisional viscosity leads to flute-type instability in the case when, collisions being neglected, the flute mode is stabilized by a finite Larmor radius. A treatment is also given of the case when epithermal high-frequency oscillations (not leading immediately to anomalous diffusion) cause instability in the low-frequency (drift) oscillations in a manner similar to the collisional electron viscosity, leading to anomalous diffusion.Notation f particle distribution function - E electric field component - H₀ magnetic field - density - V particle velocity - e charge - m, M electron and ion mass - _i, _e ion and electron cyclotron frequencies - viscous stress tensor - P pressure - r_i Larmor radius - P pressure tensor - t time - frequency - T temperature - collision frequency - collision time - j current density - _i, _e ion and electron drift frequencies - k_x, k_y, k_z wave-vector components - n₀ particle density - g acceleration due to gravity.The authors are grateful to A. A. Galeev for valuable discussion.