Convective cells driven by longitudinal current

A new formulation describing convective cells in magnetized plasmas driven by longitudinal current density is presented. The equilibrium state is regarded as a stationary incompressible flow in a uniform longitudinal magnetic field. A solution to the equilibrium flow, leading to a uniform vorticity, is shown to exist in terms of periodic functions in a cylindrical geometry. The uniform vorticity, in turn, is seen to drive a constant longitudinal current, thus giving rise to convective cells. The relation of the convective cells to macroscopic plasma instabilities is discussed. (author)