Universal Instability in Complex Field Geometries

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Abstract
An inhomogeneous collisionless plasma in a magnetic field B is unstable to an electrostatic oscillation propagating nearly perpendicular to B but with a large phase velocity parallel to B. We study the stability of this mode in a more complicated plasma equilibrium, including magnetic shear, finite plasma length, currents parallel to B, temperature gradients, and gravity‐simulated magnetic cusp or mirror curvature. We find that many of these equilibria are stable to this mode, which has been misnamed a ``universal instability.''

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