Numerical studies of the nonlinear evolution of magnetohydrodynamic–type tearing modes in three-dimensional toroidal geometry with neoclassical effects are presented. The inclusion of neoclassical physics introduces an additional free-energy source for the nonlinear formation of magnetic islands through the effects of a bootstrap current in Ohm’s law. The neoclassical tearing mode is demonstrat...

The linear stability of zero and finite width, arbitrarily compressible, and magnetized velocity shear layers with isotropic or anisotropic pressure is investigated. Such flows, modeled by the magnetohydrodynamic equations with generalized polytrope laws for the pressure parallel and perpendicular to the magnetic field, are relevant in various astrophysical, geophysical and space plasma configu...

The luminosity and structure of neutron star magnetospheres are crucial to our understanding of pulsar and plerion emission. A solution found using the force-free approximation would be an interesting standard with which any model with more physics could be compared. Prior quasi-analytic force-free solutions may not be stable, while prior time-dependent magnetohydrodynamic models used unphysica...

Virtually collisionless magnetic mirror-trapped energetic ion populations often partially stabilize internally driven magnetohydrodynamic disturbances in the magnetosphere and in toroidal laboratory plasma devices such as the tokamak. This results in less frequent but dangerously enlarged plasma reorganization. Unique to the toroidal magnetic configuration are confined 'circulating' energetic p...

The linear gyrokinetics theory in the axisymmetric configuration is revisited. It is found that the conventional gyrokinetic theory needs to be repaired in order to recover the linear magnetohydrodynamics from the gyrokinetics and to obtain the finite Larmor radius effect on the magnetohydrodynamic modes in an ordering-consistent manner. Two key inclusions are: 1 the solution of the equilibrium...