On the stability of small-scale ballooning modes in axisymmetric mirror traps

Abstract

Abstract It is shown that a steepening of the radial plasma pressure profile leads to a decrease in the critical value of beta, above which, small-scale balloon-type perturbations in a mirror trap become unstable. This may mean that small-scale ballooning instability leads to a smoothing of the radial plasma profile. The critical beta values for the real magnetic field of the gas-dynamic trap and various plasma pressure radial profiles was also calculated. For a plasma with a parabolic profile critical beta is evaluated at the level of 0.72. A previous theoretical prediction for this trap was almost two times lower than maximal beta 0.6 achieved experimentally.