Stabilization of kink disturbances by inhomogeneous magnetic fields

With a view to studying a new scheme for magnetic plasma confinements, kink disturbances were investigated for a perfectly conducting cylinder with circular and rigid cross section, placed in the octupole field generated by four external parallel current carrying straight conductors. The inhomogeneous magnetic vacuum field stabilized the disturbances by inductive field changes. This stabilizing effect increased rapidly as conductor positions were made to approach the cylinder. The analysis was performed both in absence and in presence of an axial magnetic field. (Author)