Pressure-Balance Limitations inZPinches with Diffusion Heating

Conditions of global energy and pressure balance are applied to a cylindrically symmetric plasma column having a $B_{\theta }$ confining field and a $B_z$ stabilizing field, as exist in stabilized $z$ pinches and tokamaks. In the process of producing stable configurations the plasma pressure due to Ohmic heating during magnetic field diffusion may become too large for the confining field to contain.