Kinetic simulation of nonlinear kink instabilities

A particle simulation study of kink and twist-kink instabilities in magnetized plasmas is presented. Plasma particle simulation codes self-consistently follow the time evolution of the individual and collective aspects of particle dynamics as well as wave dynamics in a fully nonlinear fashion. The twist-kink mode is a possible mechanism for fast release of magnetic energy into thermal or mechanical in modeling the physics of solar flares, tandem mirrors, and other laboratory devices. A particle simulation model was developed for these applications that incorporates Darwin's formulation of the electromagnetic fields with a guiding center approximation for electron motion perpendicular to the ambient magnetic field with the inclusion of all three dimensions. This enables exploration of magnetoactive kinetic plasma physical processes at low frequencies without restrictions of lower dimensionality, which have heretofore not been available. Implementation of this model and the examination of its theoretical and computational properties are presented. Using this model, the author examined several cases of kink and twist-kink instabilities in a three-dimensional slab as candidates for a fast energy release mechanism in a plasma, three dimensional extensions of two-dimensional process such as the coalescence instability