Drift Instabilities in General Magnetic Field Configurations

A theory of low-frequency drift (universal) instabilities in a nonuniform collisionless plasma is developed for general magnetic field configurations including trapped particle effects, rather than the plane geometry which has previously received most attention. A type of energy principle shows that the special equilibrium distribution F(∈, μ), of interest in minimum-B mirror configurations, is absolutely stable to these modes provided ∂F/∂∈ < 0 together with a second condition on ∂F/∂μ. For equilibrium distributions not of this special form, in particular for a Maxwell distribution with a density gradient, the case of axisymmetric toroidal configurations with closed poloidal field lines is considered in detail. Three unstable drift modes are found, a flute-like mode, a drift-ballooning mode local to the region of unfavorable curvature, and a drift-universal mode. Stability criteria and growth rates for the modes are given. The equations also describe a recently discussed low-frequency trapped-particle instability.