Reminimization of energy integral and transition point of mode for relaxed states of nonideal MHD plasma

The sufficient condition for relaxed minimum-energy states is derived from the energy principle for a nonideal MHD plasma using two different processes of formulation. The Euler equation for the reminimization of the energy integral is derived and shown to yield the marginal stable perturbations for the sufficient condition. To determine the transition point of the relaxed mode, an extended stability limit for the β = 0 relaxed states is derived from the sufficient condition, using the eigenvalue analysis for the Euler equation. The extended stability limit is solved in the 1st-order approximation to explain the deviation of the experimental stability limit from the idealized stability limit obtained by Taylor. The stability limit for the finite β relaxed states is also discussed. (author)