Linear Stability Analysis of a Hot Plasma in a Solid Torus

Abstract: This paper is a first step toward understanding the effect of toroidal geometry on the rigorous stability theory of plasmas. We consider a collisionless plasma inside a torus, modeled by the relativistic Vlasov-Maxwell system. The surface of the torus is perfectly conducting and it reflects the particles specularly. We provide sharp criteria for the stability of equilibria under the assumption that the particle distributions and the electromagnetic fields depend only on the cross-sectional variables of the torus.