Guiding center plasma stability of the bumpy theta pinch

In a great many present day as well as future plasma confinement experiments, the Larmor radii (Rsub(L)) of the constituent charged particles are very much less than the dimensions of the experimental apparatus. It is in this limit (Rsub(L) → 0) that the guiding center plasma (GCP) equations are of importance. A comparison of the GCP equations with the better under-stood MHD equations as applied to the diffuse profile bumpy theta pinch is made, concentrating primarily on the MHD spectral theory given by Witzner for the bumpy theta pinch to see how the GCP approximation can modify these results. In particular attention is restricted to oscillatory modes transverse to the magnetic field. These are the modes found to be most MHD unstable. (U.K.)