Effect of Hall current and finite Larmor radius on the stability of a plasma

Abstract

The simultaneous effects of finite Larmor radius and Hall current are investigated on the stability of a plasma having a one-dimensional density gradient along the direction of the static unform magnetic field. The solution is shown to be characterized by a variational principle. Based on the existence of the variational principle, dispersion relation has been obtained for a continuously stratified plasma layer of finite depth. It has been found that the Larmor radius, though ineffective in changing the stability criterion in the absence of Hall currents stabilizes the configuration for disturbances corresponding to large wave numbers when the effects of Hall currents are also taken into consideration.