LOW-BETA EQUILIBRIUM AND STABILITY FOR ANISOTROPIC PRESSURE CLOSED FIELD LINE PLASMA-CONFINEMENT SYSTEMS

A formalism has been developed to analyze the equilibrium and stabilit y of low-beta anisotropic pressure plasmas confined in closed field li ne magnetic systems. This formalism, based on a joint use of paraxial (long-thin) and low-beta approximations, allows self-consistent equili brium and stability consideration of rather general magnetic systems w ith nonuniform axis curvature and longitudinal profiles of toroidal an d multipole poloidal field. Strong pressure anisotropy, corresponding to enhanced plasma pressure in mirror cells of the system, may also be considered. Nonconventional features of anisotropic pressure equilibr ia have been revealed. Application of the above formalism to the recen tly proposed linked mirror neutron source (LMNS) confirms the basic pr inciples of the LMNS concept, but calculations based on this formalism have appreciably corrected some LMNS parameters. The LMNS longitudina l pressure profile and magnetic field distribution are optimized. (C) 1996 American Institute of Physics.