Galatea trap: magnetohydrodynamic stability of plasma surrounding current-carrying conductors

Abstract

Abstract Ideal magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) properties depending on the plasma pressure are considered for axisymmetric equilibrium magnetoplasma configurations in the Galatea trap with three ring current-carrying conductors embedded in plasma. The study of ideal MHD modes with different toroidal wave numbers takes into account the plasma compressibility with an adiabatic index of 5/3 in the perturbed potential energy functional in the framework of the energy principle. The stability calculations are performed in the presence of a vacuum layer between the plasma and the vacuum chamber. The limiting pressure values corresponding to stable multiply connected plasma configurations without an assumption of nested magnetic surfaces are estimated.