Instability of tangential discontinuities in pinching plasmas

A new mechanism for the formation of pinching plasma instability related to a tangential discontinuity is discussed. With this in mind we use a simple model of the Davydov-Zakharov class. It appears that there is a strong dep endence of the instability increment on current density resulting from the corresponding dispersion relation. Modulation of a current pulse is shown t o be a possible way of stabilizing powerful discharges.