Stability of anisotropic relativistic hot electron plasma in the ELMO Bumpy Torus

The stability of an EBT plasma with an anisotropic, relativistic hot electron component is examined using the kinetic approach in a slab geometry model. An anisotropic equilibrium distribution function is constructed for the hot electrons by assuming that << , mc2 where P/sub z/ and P/sub perpendicular/ are respectively the parallel and perpendicular momenta, and mc2 is the rest mass energy. We find that a significant enhancement in the stability of the flute interchange mode occurs as a result of relativity. For typical EBT parameters the ion beta, β/sub i/ increases by about 50% as a result of increasing the hot electron energy from about 5 keV to about 5 MeV. For energies beyond the rest mass energy the increase in β/sub i/ is not as dramatic. We also find that P/sub i/L/sub n/ where P/sub n/ is the ion gyroradius, and L/sub n/ is the density gradient scale length, is a critical parameter for instabilities arising from coupling between the interchange mode, the hot electron drift mode and the compressional Alfven mode