THERMOMAGNETIC INSTABILITY IN A MAGNETIZED PLASMA

The thermomagnetic instability, driven by gradients of the plasma density and temperature, which are parallel to each other and orthogonal to the magnetic field, is studied. The focus of this paper is on a magnetized plasma, in which the electron cyclotron frequency is larger than the electron collision frequency. The nature of the transverse heat conductivity in the magnetized plasma causes the instability to be driven by opposite density and temperature gradients. The growth rate in the magnetized plasma is much smaller than in the unmagnetized plasma. In a very strong magnetic field heat convection is larger than heat conduction, and the instability is further stabilized by the Hall field.