Stabilization of the collisional tearing mode instability by the plasma flow

The collisional tearing instability is investigated in a frame of MHD equations, taking account of the plasma expanding along the magnetic field in the narrow region of the neutral sheet. This expanding plasma flow affects the criterion of the stability and strongly stabilizes the collisional tearing instability. The results obtained here are applied to the laboratory plasma and space plasma (earth magnetospheric tail and solar atmosphere connected with the substorm and solar flare phenomena). (author)